EXCHANGE 


HISTORY 


OF 


George  Rogers  Clark's 


Conquest  of  the   Illinois  and  the 
Wabash  Towns  1778  and  1779 


By 
CONSUL  WILSHIRE   BUTTERFIELD 

Author  of  the  "History  of  the  Discovery  of  the  Northwest  by 
John    Nicolet,    in    1634;"    "History    of    the    Girtys;" 
"History  of  Brule's  Discoveries  and  Explora 
tions,  1610-1626;"  and  Other  Works. 


Published  Under  the  Auspices,. 6f  ,Th^  Qhixv 
Archaeological  and   Historical  Society 


COLUMBUS,  OHIO 
PRESS  OF  F.  J.  HEER 
Nineteen  Hundred  and  Four 


EXCHANGE 


Entered  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress 
in   the  year   1904 

BY  FRED  J.   HEER 

In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress 
at  Washington. 


PREFACE. 


The  heroic  band  which,  under  Lieutenant-Colonel 
George  Rogers  Clark,  in  1778  reduced  the  Illinois,  and 
early  in  1779  captured  Lieutenant-Governor  Henry  Hamil 
ton  and  his  force  at  Vincennes  upon  the  Wabash,  was  the 
Western  Advance-Guard  of  the  Revolution.  Its  successes 
were  the  most  important  of  any  gained  by  the  Americans 
over  the  British  and  Indians  northwest  of  the  Ohio  during 
the  war. 

It  may  be  said  that,  although  some  feeble  attempts  had 
previously  been  made  on  part  of  the  American  borderers  to 
punish  the  savages  of  the  West  for  their  bloodthirsty  ma-' 
rauds  into  their  settlements,  it  was  not  until  a  military  force, 
respectable  in  numbers  for  that  day  and  region,  had  as 
sembled  west  of  the  Alleghany  mountaine  to  move  down 
the  Ohio  for  the  purpose  of  capturing  Kaskaskia,  in  the  Illi 
nois,  from  the  enemy,  that  any  systematic  effort  was  put  forth 
by  Americans,  acting  on  the  offensive.  The  undertaking, 
therefore,  on  part  of  Virginia  (which  State  was  its  only  pro- 
motor),  was  an  earnest  that  she  dared  to  meet  the  British 
and,  if  need  be,  her  Indian  allies  upon  their  own  ground  — 
or  at  least  upon  the  soil  over  which  England  exercised 
both  military  and,  to  a  limited  extent,  civil  jurisdiction. 
The  circumstances  attending  the  commencement  of  the  cam 
paign,  the  unusual  secrecy,  intrepidity  and  courage  with 
which  it  was  conducted  in  the  face  of  almost  insurmountable 
obstacles,  are,  it  is  believed,  events  having  few  parallels  in 
our  history. 

It  is  clear  that,  to  give  a  correct  recital  of  the  con 
quest  of  the  Illinois  and  of  the  Wabash  posts,  relying  solely 
upon  American  accounts,  even  though  they  are  contempo 
raneous,  or  nearly  so,  is  impossible.  Great  pains  have  there 
fore  been  taken  to  gather  all  incidents  that  are  attainable 
fiom  British  archives  and  kindred  sources,  and  to  secure 
all  such  manuscript  letters  and  statements  (or  copies  of 

(v) 


678022 


vi  Preface. 

them)  as  are  extant,  written  at  or  near  the  time  of  the  ex 
pedition,  which  are  elsewhere  to  be  found,  and  which  have 
a  bearing  directly  or  remotely  upon  the  movement.  It  is 
thus  that  both  sides,  in  this  narrative,  have,  what  is  of  vital 
importance  —  an  impartial  hearing,  and  that  the  author  is 
enabled  to  bring  forward  not  only  many  events  hitherto 
unknown,  but  to  correct  numerous  errors  which  have  found 
a  foothold  in  Western  annals. 

In  explanation  of  the  value  to  be  attached  to  most  of 
the  British  documents  bearing  upon  the  principal  subject 
under  discussion,  it  may  be  said  that,  in  June,  1778,  General 
Frederick  Haldimand  succeeded  Sir  Henry  Carleton  as  gov 
ernor  and  commander-in-chief  of  the  Province  of  Quebec, 
which  then  included  not  only  Canada,  as  understood  by  the 
Americans,  but  the  whole  of  the  West  to  the  Ohio  River 
and  the  Mississippi;  in  brief,  all  of  what  is  now  known 
as  the  "Historic  Northwest;" — that  is,  what  after  the  Revo 
lution,  was  generally  spoken  of  as  the  "Northwest  Territory." 

Gen.  Haldimand  held  the  position  until  November,  1784. 
Every  event  of  importance  which  came  to  the  knowledge 
of  his  subordinates  was  reported  by  them  and  came  sooner 
or  later  to  him  at  his  headquarters.  These  reports  were 
sent  mostly  from  Detroit,  Michilimackinac,  Kaskaskia  and 
Vincennes,  or  from  dependences  of  these  posts,  so  that  the 
General  was  always  in  receipt  of  current  news  from  the 
"Upper  Country,"  as  the  West  was  then  termed  by  residents 
upon  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  whole  of  this  correspondence 
has  been  preserved  and  is  now  in  the  British  Museum  (copies 
of  which  are  to  be  found  in  the  public  archives  in  Ottaw? 
Canada).  As  it  covers  the  period  of  the  expeditions  under 
taken  and  carried  forward  to  completion  by  Clark  in  177; 
and  1779,  the  information  which  it  imparts  is  indispensable 
to  our  narrative. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  Haldimand  collection  also  in 
cludes  the  correspondence  of  Carleton,  which  was  turned 
over  to  his  successor  upon  the  latter  assuming  the  duties 
and  responsibilities  of  the  office  previously  held  by  Sir  Guy. 
Valuable  manuscripts  were  likewise  added  which  would 
not  have  been  obtained  but  for  the  fact  that  British  and 
Indian  successes  in  the  West  sometimes  resulted  in  the 
capturing  of  letters  and  documents  written  by  Americans 


Preface.  vli 

relative  to  the  war.  Of  these,  some  are  of  especial  worth 
in  elucidation  of  events  transpiring  during  the  conquest  of 
the  Illinois  and  of  the  Wabash  towns. 

But  of  more  consequence  to  the  subjects  treated  of  in  the 
following  pages  is  the  knowledge  to  be  derived  exclusively 
from  American  sources.  The  accounts  believed  reliable, 
whether  in  manuscript  or  print,  have  been  collected,  many  of 
them,  only  after  patient  research,  as  they  were  widely  scat 
tered.  The  extent  of  investigations  made  will  be  readily 
comprehended  by  observing  the  books  and  pamphlets,  the 
manuscript  letters  and  documents,  that  are  cited  upon  nu 
merous  pages  of  the  work.  To  name,  in  particular,  in  this 
connection,  such  as  are  of  paramount  significance  is  be 
lieved  to  be  unnecessary,  as  their  importance  is  sufficiently 
disclosed  in  the  references  made  to  them. 

South   Omaha,    Neb., 

,  189... 


Preface.  ix 


CONSUL  WILSHIRE   BUTTERFIELD  — 
HISTORIAN. 

BY    W.    H.    HUNTER,    CHILLICOTHE,   OHIO. 
1902. 

Consul  Wilshire  Butterfield,  the  famous  Historian,  was 
born  near  the  village  of  Colosse,  Oswego  County,  New  York, 
July  28,  1824.  He  was  of  Knickerbocker  stock,  his  father's 
people  coming  to  America  in  1634.  His  parents,  Amroy  But 
terfield  and  Mary  Lamb  Butterfield,  immigrated  from  Brattle- 
boro,  Vermont,  to  the  State  of  New  York. 

Consul  Wilshire  Butterfield  died  at  his  home  in  South 
Omaha,  Nebraska,  on  Monday,  September  25,  1899.  At  noon 
Mr.  Butterfield  appeared  to  be  in  usual  exuberant  spirits  and 
was  apparently  in  good  health.  Shortly  after  two  o'clock  he 
decided  to  visit  his  near  neighbor,  Mr.  O'Connor,  and  while 
he  was  ascending  the  steps  to  the  O'Connor  residence  was 
stricken  with  a  sinking  spell,  from  which  he  never  rallied. 
When  it  was  known  that  Mr.  Butterfield  was  seriously  ill, 
neighbors  conveyed  him  to  his  home  and  summoned  a  phy 
sician,  who  pronounced  life  extinct  on  his  arrival. 

Ripe  in  years  he  passed  to  his  reward;  and  thus  ended  the 
earthly  career  of  a  man  whose  achievements  marked  him  as  a 
genius  and  his  memory  will  be  cherished  as  long  as  letters  are 
a  factor  of  progress.  When  he  died  a  noble  spirit  took  its 
"earthless  flight;"  a  lovabl'e  husband  was  taken  from  a  happy 
home ;  a  kind  father  was  separated  from  a  daughter  who  cher 
ished  every  fiber  of  his  being. 

Mr.  Butterfield  lived  a  long  and  busy  life.  He  was  even 
at  work  when  came  the  summons  that  called  his  spirit  hence. 

While  Mr.  Butterfield  stood  alone  as  writer  of  American 
history  that  has  relation  to  the  American  Indian  and  the  Pio 
neer,  he  was  the  most  modest  of  men.  He  never  sought  re 
nown.  He  loved  his  fellows,  and  his  work  was  his  pleasure, 
In  a  letter  to  the  writer  he  said  his  whole  ambition  was  to 
record  the  truth ;  to  this  end  his  life  was  consecrated,  and 
his  many  historical  works,  all  recognized  as  authorities  and 
to  which  all  other  writers  must  go  for  information,  attest  the 
sincerity  of  his  statement. 


x  Preface. 

While  not  so  graphic  in  style  as  Parkman,  he  was  always 
accurate.  He  never  printed  as  a  fact  in  history  any  incident 
or  statement  until  he  had  examined  every  authority  to  ascer 
tain  the  truth.  His  style  was  direct ;  he  never  employed  a 
superfluous  word  and  his  work  was  always  comprehensive. 

A  profound  historical  scholar,  an  indefatigable  worker,  he 
left  as  his  monument  numerous  books  invaluable  to  the  stu 
dent  and  the  reader.  Mr.  Butterfield  was  a  genius;  he  never 
worked  for  money.  The  word  money  seldom  came  to  his 
mind;  his  achievement  was  not  the  accumulation  of  wealth. 
His  masterful  efforts  directed  along  other  lines  of  human  en 
deavor  would  have  procured  a  fortune,  as  the  world  under 
stands  fortune.  But  he  wrote  history  as  a  patriot  performs 
a  service  for  his  country,  without  pay,  as  the  world  under 
stands  pay.  He  devoted  his  life  to  work  that  few  men  could 
perform.  Working  night  and  day,  he  accomplished  much,  and 
the  world  of  letters  is  richer  because  he  lived.  He  was  one 
of  those  sweet  souls  whose  devotion  to  patriotic  duty  was  a 
sacrifice  of  pleasure,  as  the  world  knows  pleasure.  He  never 
made  money,  for  his  works  were  not  of  the  popular-novel 
character  demanded  by  the  mass  of  those  who  read  history. 
Indeed  it  took  much  of  his  time  to  correct  the  errors  set 
forth  by  men  who  wrote  history  for  the  money  results. 

Writers  of  Butterfield's  bent  and  attainments  are  so  rare 
that,  when  discovered,  the  state  should  possess  their  talents 
and  thus  give  the  people  the  benefit  of  all  their  time,  for  it 
is  too  valuable  to  be  given  up  to  bread-winning^;  and  men  who 
write  history,  as  Mr.  Butterfield  wrote  history,  cannot  make 
money  selling  books. 

The  production  of  one  of  his  works  is  an  achievement 
greater  than  coining  wealth;  while  thousands  can  coin  money, 
only  one  could  do  the  work  Butterfield  did.  But  Butterfield 
never  received  the  one-thousandth  part  of  the  wealth  that  other 
men  receive  for  like  expenditure  of  nerve-force  in  other  lines 
of  labor.  While  rich  men  spend  millions  to  establish  libraries 
which  reduce  the  sale  of  books  such  as  he  wrote,  there  are 
men  writing  books  at  their  own  expense,  we  might  say,  to  fill 
the  shelves  of  these  libraries,  who  scarcely  afford  a  roof  they 
can  call  their  own.  There  should  be  equity  in  philanthropy : 
It  is  easier  for  an  iron  king  to  put  up  library  buildings  than 
it  is  for  men  like  Butterfield  to  fill  their  shelves. 


Preface.  xi 

Mr.  Butterfield  was  admired  not  only  for  his  great  ability 
manifest  in  his  literary  achievements,  but  for  his  generous, 
kindly  spirit  and  his  sincerity  as  a  friend.  His  was  an  un 
selfish  life;  his  time  was  given  for  the  benefit  of  others.  It 
was  always  a  pleasure  to  him  to  aid  the  student  of  history, 
and  in  response  to  a  mere  suggestion  he  wrote  a  chapter  on 
Fort  Laurens  for  the  Pathfinders  of  Jefferson  county,  although 
at  the  time  he  was  ill  and  was  engaged  on  important  work  of 
his  own;  and  this  chapter  was  the  labor  of  several  days.  He 
loved  his  friends  of  whom  he  must  have  had  many,  for  no 
one  of  his  great  ability  and  kindly  nature  could  pass  in  and 
out  among  the  activities  of  life  without  gaining  the  apprecia 
tion  of  his  fellowmen.  He  always  spoke  kindly  of  friends. 
The  writer  of  this  cherishes  more  than  all  else  the  kind  words 
written  of  him  to  a  mutual  friend,  and  ever  will  be  green  the 
writer's  memory  of  this  man  who  is  at  rest. 

Mr.  Butterfield  was  always  particularly  fond  of  music  and 
poetry,  of  children  and  of  all  kinds  of  pets.  He  considered 
Shakespeare  the  one  great  genius,  but  the  poets  he  studied 
and  most  admired  were  Milton,  and  our  own  Bryant.  In  a 
letter  to  the  writer  after  his  death,  Alice  Butterfield  said  of 
her  father:  "Though  not  a  church  member,  his  faith  in  the 
immortality  of  the  soul  was  strong,  as  evidenced  by  a  great 
many  little  things  easy  to  perceive,  but  hard  to  write  about." 

His  home-life  was  quiet  and  uneventful.  He  loved  his 
family,  and  his  wife  and  daughter  were  devoted  to  him,  and 
all  were  happy  in  their  little  circle. 

Order  was  the  keynote  of  his  method  of  labor.  He  did 
not  await  the  moving  influence  of  the  spirit,  but  wrote  regu 
larly  a  certain  length  of  time,  (preferably  the  morning  hours) 
each  day,  much  as  any  one  would  go  about  a  business  enter 
prise.  At  times,  though,  when  becoming  much  engrossed  in 
his  subject  he  would  keep  right  on  until  compelled  to  quit 
from  sheer  exhaustion. 

Mr.  Butterfield's  writing  was  always  done  at  his  home. 
His  desk  was  in  the  sitting-room,  and  he  was  not  easily  dis 
turbed.  His  daughter,  in  answer  to  inquiry,  wrote:  "As  to 
how  father  would  come  to  select  a  certain  subject  upon  which 
to  write  a  book,  I  do  not  know;  but  imagine  he  would  be 
come  interested  in  a  particular  historical  character  or  'event 
from  general  reading  and  then  if  he  considered  it  inadequately 


xii  Preface. 

represented  he  would  determine  to  elaborate  upon  the  subject 
himself." 

A  correspondent  writing  to  Mr.  Butterfield,  expressed  sur 
prise  that  any  one  living  in  South  Omaha,  in  far  away  Ne 
braska,  could  write  a  book  showing  so  much  research  as 
Brule;  but  accepted  it  as  a  possibility  if  Mr.  Butterfield  had  an 
extensive  private  library.  Mr.  Butterfield,  in  speaking  of  this, 
quoted  "extensive  private  library"  as  a  jest;  for  it  is  a  fact, 
fifty  to  one  hundred  books  would  be  the  size  of  his  library  at 
any  one  time,  though  he  was  constantly  changing  it  and  a 
large  number  of  books  passed 'through  his  hands.  In  speak 
ing  of  this  incident  Miss  Butterfield  said :  "I  remember  hav 
ing  remarked  at  the  time  that  there  was  not  so  much  in  hav 
ing  a  lot  of  information  at  one's  elbow  as  there  was  in  know 
ing  how  to  get  what  one  wanted,  and  father  responded, 
That's  just  it  exactly;'  and  it  seems  to  me  that  to  this  ability 
to  get  the  information  he  wanted  his  merit  as  a  historian  is 
largely  due."  Mrs.  Butterfield  was  his  proof-reader,  she  be 
ing  a  person  of  literary  attainments. 

In  1834  Mr.  Butterfield's  father's  family  removed  from 
New  York  to  Melmore,  Seneca  County,  Ohio.  At  the  age  of 
eighteen  Butterfield  commenced  teaching  a  district  school  in 
Omar,  Chautauqua  County,  N.  Y.  He  afterward  attended 
the  Normal  School  in  Albany  for  two  terms,  but  his  health 
failing,  he  left  the  school  to  take  a  trip  to  Europe.  He  re 
turned  in  1846  coming  to  Seneca  County,  Ohio,  where  his 
parents  had  located  in  1834. 

The  next  year  he  wrote  a  history  of  Seneca  County  which 
was  published  in  1848.  In  1847  he  was  elected  Superintend 
ent  of  the  Seneca  County  schools.  Early  in  1849  he  resigned 
this  position  to  make  an  overland  trip  to  California.  The  next 
year  he  was  an  independent  candidate  in  that  state  for  Super 
intendent  of  Public  Instruction,  but  was  defeated  by  a  few 
votes,  He  returned  to  Ohio  in  1851  and  finished  a  course  in 
law  which  he  had  commenced  in  San  Francisco,  and  in  1855 
he  entered  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Bucyrus, 
Crawford  County,  relinquishing  it  in  1875. 

In  1854  he  served  as  Secretary  of  the  Ohio  and  Indiana 
Railroad  Company,  and  while  engaged  in  this  occupation 
found  time  to  write  "A  Comprehensive  System  of  Grammat 
ical  and  Rhetorical  Punctuation,"  which  was  printed,  but 


Preface.  xiii 

afterward  suppressed.  An  abridgement  of.  the  book  was  pub 
lished  in  1878,  this  publication  becoming  a  very  popular  work 
and  was  introduced  into  many  schools. 

After  quitting  the  practice  of  law  he  devoted  his  time  to 
literary  pursuits,  having,  however,  previously  written  "An 
Historical  Account  of  the  Expedition  Against  Sandusky,  under 
Col.  William  Crawford,  in  1782."  This  book  written  in  Bucy- 
rus,  Ohio,  was  issued  from  the  press  of  Robert  Clarke  &  Co., 
Cincinnati.  The  work  gave  the  story  of  one  of  the  most 
thrilling  expeditions  of  the  Revolutionary  War,  the  death  of 
Col.  Crawford  at  the  stake  being  perhaps  the  most  tragic  of 
all  the  incidents  of  border  warfare  during  the  struggle  for 
American  Independence.  The  story  is  told  in  Mr.  Butter- 
field's  direct  style  and  is  so  thrilling  of  itself  that  the  narrative 
needs  no  elaboration  to  interest  the  reader. 

In  1875  he  wrote,  at  Madison,  Wis.,  where  he  had  moved, 
in  that  year,  a  work  jointly  with  Lyman  C.  Draper,  a  gentle 
man  who  had  gathered  many  manuscripts  and  information 
of  pioneer  history,  which  he  afterward  presented  to  the  Li 
brary  of  the  Wisconsin  Historical  Society,  on  "Border  Forays, 
Conflicts  and  Incidents ;"  but  this  book  was  never  printed  on 
account  of  some  disagreement  between  the  two  authors;  and 
the  evidence  as  to  this  does  not  lay  the  least  blame  upon  Mr. 
Butterfield.  In  the  spring  of  1877  was  published  "The  Wash 
ington-Crawford  Letters"  edited  by  Mr.  Butterfield,  and  issued 
from  the  press  of  Robert  Clarke  &  Co.,  which  is  invaluable 
to  the  historical  writer,  for  it  contains  information  not  to  be 
found  elsewhere,  and  like  all  of  Butterfield's  works  must  be 
read  to  find  authority  for  many  historical  statements  of  fact. 
In  it  is  given  an  idea  of  Washington's  interest  in  the  West 
and  the  immense  tracts  of  land  he  secured  for  his  military 
services  as  a  Virginia  officer  during  the  French  and  Indian 
wars. 

In  the  fall  of  1875  Mr.  Butterfield  completed  for  an  "His 
torical  Atlas  of  Wisconsin,"  (which  was  published  the  next 
year)  a  "History  of  Wisconsin,"  assisting  also  in  the  prepara 
tion  of  the  county  histories  and  biographical  sketches  found 
in  that  atlas. 

The  "History  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin"  was  writ 
ten  by  him  and  published  in  1879.  His  next  work  was  one 
of  the  most  important  of  all  his  books,  being  "Discovery  of 


xiv  Preface. 

the  Northwest  in  1634  by  John  Nicolet,"  which  also  contained 
a  sketch  of  Nicolet's  life.  This  is  a  remarkable  book,  but  Mr, 
Butterfield,  after  his  work  on  Brule  was  published,  insisted 
that  the  latter  should  be  read  first  by  the  student  of  the  French 
discoveries  in  America.  The  production  of  Nicolet  gave  evi 
dence  of  Butterfield's  complete  knowledge  of  French,  of  his 
painstaking  and  wide  research  as  well  as  his  marked  literary 
ability.  It  is  a  record  of  the  indomitable  perseverance  and 
heroic  bravery  of  John  Nicolet  in  an  exploration  which  re 
sulted  in  his  being  the  first  of  civilized  men  to  set  foot  upon 
any  portion  of  the  Northwest,  which  is  to  say,  any  part  of  the 
territory  now  constituting  the  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illi 
nois,  Michigan  and  Wisconsin.  It  is  also  shown  how  he 
brought  to  the  knowledge  of  the  world  the  existence  of  a 
fresh-water  sea  —  Lake  Michigan.  It  was  always  Mr.  But 
terfield's  intention  to  rewrite  this  very  remarkable  work  and 
make  it  more  popular  by  eliminating  the  many  French  pas 
sages  which  were  introduced  for  the  purpose  of  adding  to  its 
interest  by  employing  the  language  of  the  early  French  writers 
and  explorers,  but  this  he  never  found  time  to  accomplish. 

In  1882  he  edited  and  published  the  "Washington-Irvine 
Correspondence,"  the  work  to  which  all  historians  must  go  for 
authority  on  the  West  in  the  Revolution.  This  work  was  pub 
lished  through  the  generosity  of  George  Plumer  Smith  of 
Philadelphia  who  not  only  subscribed  for  numerous  copies 
before  it  was  printed,  but  furnished  the  maps  in  the  book. 
This  work,  as  its  title  indicates,  consists  of  the  official  letters 
which  passed  between  Washington  and  Brig.-Gen.  Wm.  Ir 
vine  and  between  Irvine  and  others  concerning  military 
affairs  in  the  West  from  1781  to  1783;  these  letters  being  ar 
ranged  and  annotated  with  an  introduction  containing  an  out 
line  of  events  occurring  previously  in  the  Trans-Allegheny 
country.  No  other  work  has  ever  been  published  containing 
so  much  information  of  value  to  the  student  of  Western  his 
tory,  and  today  no  American  library  is  considered  complete 
without  it.  In  speaking  of  Mr.  Smith's  part  in  the  publica 
tion  of  this  book,  Mr.  Butterfield  wrote  the  writer  of  this  in 
June,  1898,  the  writer  having  conveyed  to  him  information 
of  Mr.  Smith's  death:  "I  was  pained  to  hear  that  George 
Plumer  Smith  was  no  more.  I  saw  him  last  in  Omaha  some 
three  or  four  years  ago.  He  and  I  corresponded  for  a  long 


Preface.  x^v 

time.  But  for  him,  the  'Washington-Irvine  Correspondence,' 
would,  probably,  not  have  been  published.  He  subscribed  for 
fifty  copies  and  afterward  purchased  as  many  more,  always 
insisting  on  paying  for  each  copy,  catalogue  price.  He  also 
paid  for  the  maps  which  you  will  notice  in  the  book.  I  return 
you  the  letters  written  by  him.  How  familiar  is  his  hand 
writing  to  our  whole  household!"  The  "Washington-Irvine 
Correspondence"  was  revised  by  Mr.  Butterfield  and  after  his 
death  the  MS.  was  sent  to  the  Chicago  Historical  Society 
Library  in  accordance  with  his  desire. 

In  1883  he  edited  a  "Short  Biography  of  John  Leeth,"  fol 
lowed  by  the  "Journal  of  Capt.  Jonathan  Heart,"  published 
in  1885;  this  work  being  an  account  of  the  march  to  the  West 
of  the  first  troops  under  the  government  of  the  New  Republic. 

Meanwhile  he  wrote  with  Frank  A.  Fowler  a  series  of 
biographical  sketches  entitled  "The  Giants  of  the  West;"  but 
the  book  was  never  given  to  the  public. 

While  residing  in  Wisconsin  he  wrote,  in  chief,  histories 
of  the  Counties  of  Rock,  Fond-du-Lac,  Columbia,  Dane,  Ver- 
non,  Crawford  and  Greene  of  that  state.  For  the  last  three 
mentioned  he  furnished  a  "General  History  of  Wisconsin," 
which  was  published  as  an  introduction  to  those  works;  his 
previous  "History  of  Wisconsin,"  published  in  the  "Historical 
Atlas"  already  mentioned,  appearing  as  introductory  to  all 
the  other  Wisconsin  County  Histories. 

He  was  on  the  editorial  staff  of  the  "Northwest  Review" 
for  March  and  April,  1883,  assistant  editor  of  "Descriptive 
America"  from  December,  1884,  to  February,  1885,  inclusive; 
and  on  the  first  day  of  January,  1886,  he  began  editorial  work 
on  the  "Magazine  of  Western  History,"  afterward  writing  a 
large  number  of  special  articles  for  that  magazine,  principally 
historical  and  biographical.  He  severed  his  connection  with 
that  periodical  in  1889. 

Having  removed  to  South  Omaha,  Nebraska,  in  1888,  he 
there  finished  the  "History  of  the  Girtys,"  for  which  he  had 
gathered  much  material  while  a  resident  of  Wisconsin.  This 
work  was  published  by  Robert  Clarke  &  Co.  in  1891,  and  is, 
perhaps,  the  most  important  of  Mr.  Butterfield's  later  works. 
It  contains  a  vast  amount  of  information  as  to  the  border 
warfare  of  the  Trans-Allegheny  country  with  the  three  Girtys 
—  Simon,  James  and  George  —  as  the  central  figures.  The 


xvi  Preface. 

work,  as  Mr.  Butterfield  has  written  to  the  writer  of  this  and 
as  well  has  printed  in  the  preface  of  the  book,  was  undertaken 
because  of  the  notoriety  they  had  obtained,  and  likewise  be 
cause  there  was  an  apparent  necessity  for  our  Western  an 
nals  to  be  freed,  as  near  as  possible,  from  error,  everywhere 
permeating  as  to  the  part  actually  taken  by  these  brothers  — 
particularly  Simon  —  in  many  of  the  important  events  which 
make  up  the  history  of  the  region  immediately  west  of  the 
Alleghenies.  It  had  become  the  rule  to  give  Simon  Girty 
all  the  odium  that  came  of  diabolism  practiced  by  American 
renegades  employed  by  the  British  for  this  purpose,  and  while 
Mr.  Butterfield  does  not  relieve  Simon  of  his  proper  place, 
he  shows  that  he  was  not  always  responsible  —  not  even 
always  present,  when  atrocious  acts  credited  to  him  by  most 
of  the  writers  of  romance  called  history,  were  committed. 
In  this  work,  as  in  all  of  his  productions,  Mr.  Butterfield 
kept  constantly  in  mind  one  object  paramount  to  all  others  — 
the  statement  of  facts,  as  he  understood  them,  and  the  truth 
was  reached  after  research  that  encompassed  everything  bear 
ing  on  the  subject.  The  reader  must  be  impressed  with  the 
large  numbers  of  documents  and  authorities  quoted  in  the  His 
tory  of  the  Girtys;  in  fact  nothing  seems  to  be  omitted  that 
would  aid  in  clearing  up  many  of  the  mysteries  of  the  border 
conflicts  during  and  after  the  Revolutionary  War  which 
opened  in  the  West  in  1774  and  continued  until  Wayne's  Vic 
tory  at  Fallen  Timbers  twenty  years  after.  He  takes  up  mat 
ters  published  as  fact  by  other  writers -and  in  a  few  words 
shows  them  to  be  only  romance  without  foundation  in  history. 
He  particularly  takes  Theodore  Roosevelt  to  task  for  print 
ing  in  his  "Winning  of  the  West"  stories  absolutely  absurd, 
as  history,  when  he  might  have  printed  truth.  In  this  work 
some  attention  is  given  to  the  whole  Girty  family,  the  father, 
mother,  and  Simon's  brothers,  including  Thomas,  and  a  half- 
brother,  John  Turner,  in  whom  interest  is  awakened  because 
of  the  bearing  their  lives  had  upon  the  most  notorious  of  their 
relatives.  In  all,  the  student  of  Trans-Allegheny  history  is 
lacking  in  information  if  he  has  not  used  the  History  of  the 
Girtys  as  a  text  book.  In  it  will  be  found  all  of  interest  in 
the  Western  country  previous  to,  during  and  after  the  Revo 
lutionary  War.  After  reading  this  work  one  must  be  im 
pressed  with  the  fact  that  history  is  filled  with  statements 


Preface.  xvii 

made  without  truth  as  basis.  This  work  was  revised  before 
Mr.  Butterfield's  death,  and .  the  MS.  complete  throughout, 
when  examined  by  his  daughter  was  found  to  contain  on  the 
title  page  a  note  giving  the  manuscript  to  the  Western  Re 
serve  Historical  Society,  to  be  held  by  it  until  the  copyright 
of  the  first  edition  shall  have  expired,  and  then  to  be  the  ab 
solute  property  of  the  Society.  This  MS.  is  now  in  the  West 
ern  Reserve  Library  at  Cleveland. 

Brule  has  already  been  mentioned  in  this  sketch.  This 
was  the  last  work  of  Mr.  Butterfield,  published.  The  manu 
script  was  presented  to  the  Western  Reserve  Historical  Soci 
ety  in  1897  and  published  by  this  Society  the  following  year. 
Brule  is  a  narrative  of  the  discovery  by  Stephen  Brule  of 
Lakes  Huron,  Ontario  and  Superior,  and  of  his  explorations, 
the  first  by  civilized  man,  of  Pennsylvania,  Western  New 
York,  and  of  the  Province  of  Ontario,  Canada.  It  is  a  most 
thrilling  story  and  it  reads  like  a  novel.  In  the  preface  the 
author  truthfully  says,  ''Few,  if  any,  of  the  early  events  prop 
erly  belonging  to  the  pages  of  American  history  are  of  more 
interest  and  importance  after  the  discovery  of  the  New  World, 
than  are  those  relating  to  the  journeyings  of  Stephen  Brule." 
The  achievements  of  this  daring  Frenchman  (Norman)  in  the 
northern  part  of  this  country  and  the  southern  part  of  Canada, 
have  not  heretofore  been  given  in  detail,  and  it  was  well  that 
the  story  remained  for  Butterfield  to  tell,  for  he  has  left  no 
leaf  unturned  and  no  musty  document  unexamined  that  gave 
information  on  the  exploits  of  Champlain's  first  interpreter, 
who  came  to  America  a  mere  boy  to  live  among  the  Indians 
with  the  view  of  learning  their  language.  He  came  to  Amer 
ica  at  a  very  early  period —  he  had  discovered  Lake  Huron 
before  the  Pilgrims  landed  on  Plymouth  Rock.  All  his  work 
is  followed  closely  and  detailed  in  attractive  historic  style  up 
to  the  hour  Brule  was  killed  and  eaten  by  the  Hurons.  Brule 
is  the  most  important  work  of  recent  years,  and  must  attract 
the  mind  of  the  pupil  who  would  know  the  early  history  of 
his  country.  There  are  copious  notes  and  an  extended  ap 
pendix,  all  of  the  greatest  value.  Butterfield  himself,  as  did 
his  intimate  friends,  considered  Brule  his  best  effort  from  a 
literary  point  of  view,  and  the  letters  written  to  him  in  regard 
to  this  work  and  the  reviews  of  it  in  the  papers  gave  him 
great  pleasure.  He  was  so  grateful  for  kindly  mention  of  his 


xviii  Preface. 

work  that  he  frequently  expressed  his  thanks,  and  this  was 
the  key  to  his  whole  life,  ever  considerate,  ever  generous.    . 

In  1892  and  1893  he  wrote  a  "History  of  South  Omaha" 
which  was  printed  in  the  last-named  year  as  an  annex  to  a 
"History  of  Omaha."  Nearly  all  the  biographical  sketches 
appearing  in  the  Omaha  history  were  prepared  by  him. 

Mr.  Butterfield  left  several  important  works  in  manu 
script,  among  them  "History  of  Col.  David  Williamson's  Ex 
pedition  to  the  Tuscarawas  River  in  1782,"  this  being  a  cor 
rect  story  of  the  massacre  of  the  Moravian  Indians,  and  is  a 
most  valuable  contribution  to  the  history  of  the  West.  It 
was  left  to  the  Western  Reserve  Historical  Society  Library 
which  Society  will  no  doubt  have  it  published.  But  the  most 
important  of  these  works  is  the  "History  of  Lieut.  Col.  George 
Rogers  Clark's  Conquest  of  the  Illinois  and  the  Wabash 
Towns  from  the  British  in  1778  and  1779."  Mr.  Butterfield 
had  this  book  ready  for  publication  in  1896,  but  as  another 
work  came  out  that  year  on  the  same  subject,  he  concluded 
not  to  publish  it,  and  he  worked  on  it  almost  to  the  day  of 
his  death.  In  correspondence  with  the  writer  of  this,  Mr. 
Butterfield  said  that  it  was  his  intention  to  present  it  to  the 
Chicago  Historical  Society;  but  when  advised  by  the  writer 
to  give  the  manuscript  to  Washington  and  Lee  University 
of  Virginia  on  the  ground  that  the  supporters  of  the  Uni 
versity  were,  many  of  them,  descended  from  Clark's  soldiers, 
he  hesitated;  but  after  his  death  his  daughter  gave  the  man 
uscript  to  the  writer  who  was  expected  to  have  it  published 
by  the  Ohio  State  Archaeological  and  Historical  Society,  and 
if  this  society  does  not  give  it  to  the  public,  the  manuscript 
will  be  sent  to  the  Washington  and  Lee  University.  His  note 
book  used  in  gathering  material  for  his  Crawford's  Sandusky 
Expedition  was  also  presented  to  the  writer. 

He  also  left  the  manuscript,  but  incomplete,  of  "The  West 
in  the  Revolution/'  which  has  been  presented  to  the  Chicago 
Historical  Society.  This  book  ought  to  be  published,  for  it 
will  fill  the  one  vacant  place  in  American  literature. 

He  left  several  other  manuscripts  which  he  had  designed 
publishing  in  pamphlet  form,  and  these  are  still  in  possession 
of  his  family. 

In  speaking  of  her  father's  death,  his  daughter  writes :  "I 
never  saw  an  old  person  in  death  look  so  'like  one  who  lies 


Preface.  xix 

down  to  pleasant  dreams.'  .  .  .  The  children  in  the  neigh 
borhood  all  came  in  to  see  and  seemed  startled.  One  little 
miss  of  six  or  seven, -whom  I  did  not  know,  came  to  the  door 
all  alone  and  asked,  'Please  might  I  see  Mr.  Butterfield?' 
She  looked  earnestly  quite  a  while  and  then  smiled  and  said, 
'That  looks  just  like  Mr.  Butterfield.'" 

Mr.  Butterfield  was  twice  married.  His  first  wife  was 
Elmira,  daughter  of  John  Scroggs  of  Bucyrus,  Crawford 
County,  Ohio,  the  marriage  being  May  8,  1854.  She  died  May 
15,  1857.  He  was  again  married  March  30,  1858,  to  Letta 
Merriman,  widow  of  James  H.  Reicheneker.  Of  this  union 
four  children  were  born :  Minnie  Bell,  who  died  September 
22,  1859,  aged  six  months;  a  son  and  daughter  both  of  whom 
died  in  infancy ;  and  Alice,  who  now  resides  with  her  widowed 
mother,  and  who  was  a  strong  right  arm  to  her  father  during 
his  later  years. 

Of  his  father's  family,  a  sister,  Mme.  Hyacinthe  Loysen, 
of  Paris,  France ;  and  Mrs.  Cylvia  Barry  are  still  living.  An 
adopted  daughter,  Mrs.  W.  J.  White,  is  the  wife  of  Major 
White,  Chief  Quartermaster  in  the  army  at  Havana,  Cuba. 


GEORGK  ROGKRS  CLARK. 


CHAPTER   I. 

TO  resist  the  tyranical  acts  of  the  Mother  coun 
try  was  the  firm  determination  of  a  large  por 
tion  of  the  people  living  upon  the  waters  of 
the  Ohio  when  the  all-absorbing  questions  so  deeply 
agitating  the  Colonies  generally,  were,  early  in  1775, 
fairly  understood. 

Swiftly  traveled  the  news  to  Philadelphia  and  then 
to  the  westward  in  the  latter  days  of  April,  that,  the 
controversy  had,  upon  the  soil  of  Massachusetts, 
ripened  into  actual  war.  It  flew  along  Forbes's  road 
: — the  main  thoroughfare  in  Pennsylvania  over  the 
mountains  west  at  that  period  —  as  if  upon  the  wings 
of  the  wind,  and  was  heard  in  Hannastown,  county 
seat  of  Westmoreland  county,  that  State,  in  breath 
less  astonishment ;  so,  too,  the  next  day  at  Pittsburgh. 
Then  Pennsylvanians  in  Westmoreland  county,  and 
Virginians  and  Pennsylvanians  in  Augusta  county 
(Virginia,  as  claimed  by  the  former)  took  counsel  to 
gether.  Meetings  were  called;  fpr  ,the  sixteenth  of 
May.  Invitations  were  sent  into  all  tlie  trans- Aile- 
ghany  settlements;  and,  on.thaj;  day  ,1  the/e '  gathered 
together  borderers  from  far  and  •  rrcar-  to*  give*  their 
views  concerning  British  aggressions,  and  "to  concert 
measures  such  as  the  crisis  seemed  to  demand.  Neigh 
boring  discords  caused  by  an  unrun  boundary  line 
between  the  two  Provinces,  ceased.  Patriotism  very 
generally  obliterated  partisan  hatred;  for  the  liberties 
of  the  whole  people  were  alike  threatened. 

As  early  as  the  fall  of  the  year  1774,  a  number  of 
North  Carolinians,  afterward  known  as  the  Transyl 
vania  Company,  began  arrangements  which  ended  in 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

the  following"  March  in  their  purchasing  from  the 
Overhill  Cherokee  Indians,  among  other  lands,  the 
whole  territory  south  of  the  Kentucky  river,  included 
within  the  present  limits  of  the  State  of  Kentucky. 

The  Company,  of  whom  Richard  Henderson  was 
the  head,  proceeded  immediately  to  make  extensive 
preparations  for  the  settlement  of  their  Kentucky 
domain,  resulting  in  the  commencement  of  Boones- 
borough,  at  the  mouth  of  Otter  creek,  on  the  south 
side  of  the  Kentucky  river,  about  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  up  that  stream,  on  the  first  day  of  April 
1775.  A  few  days  previous,  Harrodsburg,  now 
county-seat  of  Mercer  county,  Kentucky,  had  been 
started  independent  of  the  claim  of  Henderson  and 
Company. 

But  there  was  an  Indian  population  (very  thinly 
scattered  it  is  true)  northwest  of  the  Ohio,  which,  if 
it  became  hostile,  it  was  quickly  seen,  wrould  be  to  the 
border  settlements  more  terrible  than  a  civilized  army. 
An  Indian  war  the  year  previous  ended  in  a  treaty 
not  yet  fully  ratified,  and  there  were  just  apprehen 
sions,^  renewed;  hostilities;  but  prompt  action  on  part 
of  v  rpginia-  arid'tjtte  balding  of  a  council  in  Pittsburgh, 


rntOeJ^b^r^T/^,  ;wfth'  Mingoes,   Shawanese,  Wyan- 
,'  <3'ffa'wrasr  kn'd  'Miificeys,  averted  the  threatened 


storm.  Meanwhile,  Congress,  in  order  to  preserve 
peace  and  friendship  with  the  savages  generally, 
created  three  Indian  Departments  —  the  Northern, 
Middle  and  Southern.  The  West  was  included  in  the 
Middle  Department. 

Settlements  down  the  Ohio  in  the  Kentucky  coun 
try  —  Harrordsbtirg  (first  known  as  "Harrodstown"), 
Boonesborough  and  other  stations  —  were  growing 
apace.  Brave  men  and  true  were  James  Harrod, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.         3 

Daniel  Boone,  and  many  more,  thus  to  make  this 
(then)  distant  and  wilderness  region  their  homes. 
And  there  was  one  among  them  transiently,  and  to 
most  unknown,  who,  of  all  others,  for  some  years 
thereafter,  in  that  country,  occupied  the  largest  part 
of  public  attention.  To  him  is  now  to-  be  given  that 
consideration  which  the  annals  of  the  West  seem  to 
demand. 

GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK  was  born  the  nineteenth 
of  November,  1752,  near  Monticello,  Albermarle 
county,  Virginia,  where  he  was  a  neighbor  and  favor 
ite  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  He  enjoyed  some  educa 
tional  advantages  from  a  noted  Scotch  teacher,  Donald 
Robertson,  in  King  and  Queen  county,  among  whose 
pupils  was  James  Madison.  He  fitted  himself  for  a 
surveyor,  and,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  practiced  for  a 
short  time  his  profession  on  the  upper  Ohio,  though 
really  more  fond  of  roving  than  surveying,  he  having, 
in  1772,  in  the  summer,  gone  on  a  journey  "towards 
Kentucky."  He  was  spoken  of  by  the  one  with  whom 
he  traveled  on  that  occasion,  as  "a  young  gentleman 
from  Virginia,  who  inclined  to  make  a  tour  in  this 
new  world." 

In  April,  1774,  a  party  of  eighty  or  ninety  Virgin 
ians  made  a  rendezvous  at  the  mouth  of  the  Little 
Kanawha,  with  the  intention  of  descending  the  Ohio 
and  beginning  a  settlement  in  Kentucky.  Clark  was 
one  of  the  party.  Reports  of  Indian  hostilities  broke 
up  the  meeting.  Finally,  actual  war  was  brought  on 
the  events  leading  to  which  were  afterward  set  forth 
by  Clark  (as  he  understood  them)  in  a  letter  to  one 
of  the  professors  of  Transylvania  University.* 

*  This  letter  was  published  in  The  Hesperian  (Columbus, 
O.:  1839),  vol.  II,  p.  309;  also  in  Jacob's  Life  of  Cresap 


4          HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Clark  took  part  in  this  conflict  of  arms,  and  was 
commissioned  a  captain.  His  company  belonged  to 
the  right  wing  of  the  army  commanded  by  Lord  Dun- 
more,  Governor  of  Virginia,  in  person.  He  was  en 
gaged  in  little  if  any  actual  fighting,  and  at  the  close 
of  the  war  was  offered  by  Dunmore  a  commission  in 
the  English  service ;  but  the  political  troubles,  already 
become  very  serious,  induced  him  to  decline  the  offer. 
"Lord  Dunmore's  War,"  as  this  contest  is  termed,  was 
carried  on  between  Virginia  on  the  one  side,  and  the 
Shawanese  and  Mingoes,  principally,  on  the  other. 
It  terminated  in  favor  of  Virginia  after  a  hard-won 
victory  at  Point  Pleasant,  where  the  Great  Kanawha 
empties  into  the  Ohio. 

In  the  spring  after  the  Virginia  governor  had  dicta 
ted  the  terms  of  peace  to  the  Shawanese  and  Mingoes 
beyond  the  Ohio,  Clark  again  turned  his  thoughts  to 
the  region  down  that  river  and  to  the  south  of  it,  as 
one  inviting  —  if  not  to  the  adventurer,  at  least  to  the 
surveyor;  so  it  was  that  he  journied  to  the  Kentucky 
woods  to  practice  for  interested  parties  the  art  he  had 
chosen  as  his  calling  for  life.  He  remained  in  the 
wilderness  until  fall  when  for  the  first  time  he  visited 
the  incipient  Kentucky  settlements. 

Many  are  the  errors  perpetuated  not  only  in  tradi 
tion  but  in  history  concerning  Clark  while  in  the  Ken 
tucky  country  in  1775.  Prominent  among  these  is 
the  statement  that  he  was  placed  in  command  of  the 
militia  there ;  but  the  answer  to  this  is,  there  was  no 
organization  of  militia  in  that  country  until  1777.  If 

(Cincinnati  Re-print:  1886),  pp.  154-158;  and  in  Mayer's 
Logan  and  Crcsap,  p.  149.  It  is  printed  nearly  entire  in 
DeHass's  History  of  the  Indian  Wars  of  Western  Virginia) 
pp.  147-149. 


'HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.         6 

any  men  were  previously  embodied  in  a  military  way, 
it  was  only  for  the  time  being  and  because  of  the  pres 
ence  (actual  or  reported)  of  hostile  savages.  Then 
a  few  settlers  would  volunteer  for  offensive  or  defens 
ive  operations.  But,  in  none  of  these  undertakings 
did  he  take  part  so  far  as  known.*  Again :  it  is  often 
repeated  that  he  became  at  once  the  most  prominent 
man  in  the  settlements.  Documentary  evidence  con 
clusively  shows  the  fallacy  of  this.  As  he  left  Ken 
tucky  in  the  fall  of  1775  and  returned  to  his  home,  it 
is  altogether  certain  that  little  if  any  mention  would 
have  been  made  of  his  visit  in  after  years  but  for  the 
events  which  subsequently  took  place  in  the  West  in 
which  he  was  a  prominent  actor. 

It  was  at  this  period  and  in  the  dense  forests  south 
of  the  Ohio,  that  Clark  first  began  to  have  some  prac 
tical  aspirations  —  some  thoughts  of  paying  attention 
to  the  interests  of  the  country  in  which  were  the  few 
infant  settlements  he  was  visiting.  He  soon  learned 
that  Henderson  and  Company  were  taking  great  pains 
to  ingratiate  themselves  in  the  favor  of  the  people; 
but,  too  soon  for  their  own  interests,  they  began  to 
raise  on  their  lands,  which  caused  many  to  complain. 
A  few  gentlemen  made  some  attempts  to  persuade 
the  people  to  pay  no  attention  to  them.  Clark  was 
not  slow  in  perceiving  that  they  would  work  their 
own  ruin ;  as  the  greatest  security  they  had  for  success 
would  be  that  of  making  it  the  interest  of  the  people 
to  support  their  claim. f 

*  Appendix,   Note  1. 

"\Memoir  of  General  George  Rogers  Clark,  Composed 
by  Himself  at  the  United  Desire  of  Presidents  Jefferson  and 
Ma dison  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  115.  That 
Henderson  and  Company  had  raised  on  the  price  of  their 


4          HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC. 

Clark  took  part  in  this  conflict  of  arms,  and  was 
commissioned  a  captain.  His  company  belonged  to 
the  right  wing  of  the  army  commanded  by  Lord  Dun- 
more,  Governor  of  Virginia,  in  person.  He  was  en 
gaged  in  little  if  any  actual  fighting,  and  at  the  close 
of  the  war  was  offered  by  Dunmore  a  commission  in 
the  English  service;  but  the  political  troubles,  already 
become  very  serious,  induced  him  to  decline  the  offer. 
"Lord  Dunmo-re's  War,"  as  this  contest  is  termed,  was 
carried  on  between  Virginia  on  the  one  side,  and  the 
Shawanese  and  Mingoes,  principally,  on  the  other. 
It  terminated  in  favor  of  Virginia  after  a  hard-won 
victory  at  Point  Pleasant,  where  the  Great  Kanawha 
empties  into  the  Ohio. 

In  the  spring  after  the  Virginia  governor  had  dicta 
ted  the  terms  of  peace  to  the  Shawanese  and  Mingoes 
beyond  the  Ohio,  Clark  again  turned  his  thoughts  to 
the  region  down  that  river  and  to  the  south  of  it,  as 
one  inviting  —  if  not  to  the  adventurer,  at  least  to  the 
surveyor;  so  it  was  that  he  journied  to  the  Kentucky 
woods  to  practice  for  interested  parties  the  art  he  had 
chosen  as  his  calling  for  life.  He  remained  in  the 
wilderness  until  fall  when  for  the  first  time  he  visited 
the  incipient  Kentucky  settlements. 

Many  are  the  errors  perpetuated  not  only  in  tradi 
tion  but  in  history  concerning  Clark  while  in  the  Ken 
tucky  country  in  1775.  Prominent  among  these  is 
the  statement  that  he  was  placed  in  command  of  the 
militia  there ;  but  the  answer  to  this  is,  there  was  no 
organization  of  militia  in  that  country  until  1777.  If 

(Cincinnati  Re-print:  1886),  pp.  154-158;  and  in  Mayer's 
Logon  and  Crcsafi,  p.  149.  It  is  printed  nearly  entire  in 
DeHuss's  History  of  the  Indian  Wars  of  Western  Virginia, 
pp.  147-149. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.         6 

any  men  were  previously  embodied  in  a  military  way, 
it  was  only  for  the  time  being  and  because  of -the  pres 
ence  (actual  or  reported)  of  hostile  savages.  Then 
a  few  settlers  would  volunteer  for  offensive  or  defens 
ive  operations.  But,  in  none  of  these  undertakings 
did  he  take  part  so  far  as  known.*  Again :  it  is  often 
repeated  that  he  became  at  once  the  most  prominent 
man  in  the  settlements.  Documentary  evidence  con 
clusively  shows  the  fallacy  of  this.  As  he  left  Ken 
tucky  in  the  fall  of  1775  and  returned  to  his  home,  it 
is  altogether  certain  that  little  if  any  mention  would 
have  been  made  of  his  visit  in  after  years  but  for  the 
events  which  subsequently  took  place  in  the  West  in 
which  he  was  a  prominent  actor. 

It  was  at  this  period  and  in  the  dense  forests  south 
of  the  Ohio,  that  Clark  first  began  to  have  some  prac 
tical  aspirations  —  some  thoughts  of  paying  attention 
to  the  interests  of  the  country  in  which  were  the  few 
infant  settlements  he  was  visiting.  He  soon  learned 
that  Henderson  and  Company  were  taking  great  pains 
to  ingratiate  themselves  in  the  favor  of  the  people; 
but,  too  soon  for  their  own  interests,  they  began  to 
raise  on  their  lands,  which  caused  many  to  complain. 
A  few  gentlemen  made  some  attempts  to  persuade 
the  people  to  pay  no  attention  to  them.  Clark  was 
not  slow  in  perceiving  that  they  would  work  their 
own  ruin ;  as  the  greatest  security  they  had  for  success 
would  be  that  of  making  it  the  interest  of  the  people 
to  support  their  claim. f 

*  Appendix,   Note  1. 

f  Memoir  of  General  George  Rogers  Clark,  Composed 
by  Himself  at  the  United  Desire  of  Presidents  Jefferson  and 
Madison  — Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  115.  That 
Henderson  and  Company  had  raised  on  the  price  of  their 


8         HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

small  garrison  at  Kaskaskia  (principal  town  of  the 
Illinois),  as  he  had  information,  which,  however,  was 
erroneous,  that  there  was  a  great  want  there  of  stores 
and  ordnance.  He  therefore  wished  very  much  to  in 
form  Captain  Lord,  commanding  the  post,  of  (this 
was  his  firm  belief)  the  imminent  danger  which  threat 
ened  him,  and  to  advise  him  to  quit  the  country.  He 
afterward  contrived  to  write  two  letters  to  the  Captain 
and,  putting  them  into  the  hands  of  John  Smyth,  one 
of  his  captured  companions,  found  means  to  start  the 
latter  for  the  Illinois ;  but  Smyth  was  retaken  and  the 
communications  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Americans,* 
who  were  not  slow  in  publishing  them,  thereby  calling 
public  attention  to  that  remote  region. 

"You  must,  agreeable  to  General  Gage's  order  and 
Lord  Dunmore's,"  were  Connolly's  words  to  the  Illi 
nois  commandant,  "proceed  down  the  Mississippi  and 
join  Lord  Dunmore  at  Norfolk,  and  the  Fourteenth 
[regiment]  which  is  now  there.  Lose  no  time,  for 
fear  the  rebels  should  be  upon  you  from  Pittsburgh." 
And  in  the  other  letter  he  wrote :  "Though  your  remote 
situation  may  have  prevented  you  from  hearing  many 
particulars  relative  to  the  state  of  the  Colonies,  you 
yet  must  know  enough  to  discover  your  own  danger 
ous  situation.  You  were  to  have  joined  me  at  Detroit, 
by  the  Wabash  communication,  and  it  was  expected, 
by  your  advice  and  assistance,  that  we  would  have 
been  able  to  penetrate  through  the  colony  of  Virginia, 
and  thus  have  divided  the  Southern  from  the  North 
ern  Governments. "f 

*  See  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History  and  Biography, 
vol.  XII,  pp.  416,  417;  also  Smyth's  Tour  in  the  United 
States  of  America,  vol.  II,  p.  269. 

f  Connolly  must  have  had  discretionary  orders  as  to  Cap- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.         0 

"I  was  made  a  prisoner/'  he  says,  in  a  letter  which 
he  also  sent  by  Smyth  to  Captain  Richard  Berringer 
Loernoult,  in  command  at  Detroit,  "on  my  way  through 
the  Government  to  your  post,  where  I  expected  to 
have  afforded  you  some  assistance,  and  to  have  ordered 
Captain  Lord,  of  the  Eighteenth  [regiment],  to  join 
us  there  also.  I  am  now  to  inform  you  that  I  much 
fear  his  Majesty's  enemies  may  attack  you  early  in  the 
Spring,  and  as  Montreal  is  in  their  hands,  I  dread  the 
consequences."  "You  were  ordered,"  continues  Con 
nolly,  "to  raise  all  the  French  you  could,  which  I  hope 
you  have  done."  "Take  care,"  concludes  the  writer, 
"that  there  is  not  an  improper  correspondence  carried 
on  between  your  post  and  Pittsburgh." 

Notwithstanding  Captain  Lord  received  no  intima 
tions  of  Connolly's  designs,  or  commands,  it  was  soon 
evident  from  advices  at  hand  from  Carleton,  in  whose 
jurisdiction  the  Illinois  then  was  (it  being,  as  claimed 
by  Great  Britain,  a  part  of  the  Province  of  Quebec), 
that  the  disasters  to  the  royal  arms  upon  the  St.  Law 
rence  caused  by  the  invasion  of  Colonial  soldiers  would 
make  it  necessary  to  have  the  Fort  in  Kaskaskia  — 
Fort  Gage,  the  British  military  post  "upon  the  Missis 
sippi" —  evacuated  by  the  regular  soldiers  stationed 
there;  but,  for  the  time,  the  Captain  continued  his 
force  in  that  country.* 

tain  Lord's  retirement.  In  the  first  place  it  was  his  idea 
to  have  that  officer  meet  him  with  his  command  at  Detroit; 
but  now  that  he  (Connolly)  was  a  prisoner,  he  would  have 
the  Captain  go  down  the  Mississippi  and  take  vessel  to 
Norfolk. 

*  See  as  to  Fort  Gaze,  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note 
XLVIII. 


10        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

The  War  of  the  Revolution  had  but  fairly  com 
menced  when  the  British  Government  turned  its  atten 
tion  to  the  savage  nations  to  the  northward,  westward 
and  southward,  of  the  Colonies.  In  previous  contests 
between  England  and  France. in  America  the  employ 
ment  of  Indians  on  either  side  as  auxiliaries  had  been 
customary ;  and  the  idea  of  the  British  General, 
Thomas  Gage,  Commander-in-chief  in  America,  who, 
writing  to  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  just  as  the  latter  was  to 
arrive  at  Quebec  as  Governor  of  Canada,  asking  to 
know  what  measures  would  be  most  efficacious  to  raise 
a  body  of  Canadians  and  Indians  to  form  a  junction 
with  the  king's  forces,  was  in  accordance  with  these 
precedents ;  but  it  is  clear  that  a  remorseless  savage 
war  was  not  what  he  intended  to  suggest. 

On  the  ninth  of  June,  1775,  Sir  Guy  proclaimed 
the  American  borderers  to  be  rebellious  traitors.  He 
established  martial  law.  He  summoned  the  French 
peasantry  to  serve  under  the  old  colonial  nobility. 
He  would  have  the  converted  Indian  tribes  and  the 
savages  of  the  Northwest  take  up  the  hatchet  against 
New  York  and  New  England.  Still  it  is  doubtful  if 
the  Canadian  governor  contemplated  in  this  anything 
beyond  the  service  of  the  savages  with  British  troops 
in  legitimate  warfare.  La  Corne  Saint-Luc  acted  for 
the  government  generally,  while  Jacques  Duperon 
Baby  sent  belts  and  strings  of  wampum  to  the  various 
tribes,  to  join  the  British  army.  In  this,  he  was  as 
sisted  by  Captain  Lernoult,  commanding  the  Detroit 
garrison.  The  savages  were  visited  by  British  emis 
saries  or  harrangued  at  British  posts  to  the  southward 
and  southwestward  of  Lake  Erie  and  to  the  westward 
and  northward  of  Lake  Huron,  even  to  the  waters  of 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        11 

Lakes  Michigan  and  Superior.  Thus  the  Indians  of 
the  West  began  to  hear  of  the  trouble  between  Great 
Britain  and  her  American  colonies;  and  they  had  it 
made  known  to  them  that  there  was  actual  war  exist 
ing  in  New  England.  But  they  were  not  urged  to  go 
in  war  parties  against  the  border  settlements. 

The  office  of  Lieutenant  Governor  and  Superin 
tendent  of  Indian  Affairs  had  already  been  created  for 
some  of  the  most  distant  posts  in  Canada.  It  was  a 
new  office  —  unknown  before  in  the  West.  It  was 
believed  by  the  British  ministry  that  the  Indians  could 
by  such  offices,  be  made  more  powerful  allies  than  by 
those  having  immediate  command  of  garrisons. 
Henry  Hamilton  in  April,  of  the  year  last  mentioned, 
was  appointed  for  Detroit  and  its  dependencies  at  a 
salary  of  two  hundred  pounds  sterling.  The  appoint 
ment  was  made  by  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth  as  Colonial 
Secretary  (Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies),  who 
was  succeeded  in  that  office  by  Lord  George  Germain 
(George  Sackville)  the  next  November.  The  Lieu 
tenant  Governor  was  to  act  under  instructions  from 
Governor  Carleton,  the  Commander-in-chief  of  the 
Province  of  Quebec.  The  paramount  idea  was,  that 
the  savages  were  to  be  worked  upon  by  him  in  such 
manner  that  they  would  be  in  readiness  always  to  join 
the  armies  of  Great  Britain ;  his  duties,  however,  being 
soon  extended  to  aiding  the  Indians  in  making  war, 
as  will  soon  be  seen,  on  the  frontier  settlements. 

"At  the  time  General  Carleton  thought  proper  to 
send  me  up  [to  Detroit],"  wrote  Hamilton  subse 
quently,  "the  rebels  had  entered  Canada,  and  I  crossed 
the  island  of  Montreal  in  a  Canadian  dress,  and  got 
the  fourth  day,  in  a  wooden  canoe,  to  Oswegatchie 


12        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

[now  Ogdensburg]  unprovided  with  (I  may  say) 
everything."* 

Hamilton  arrived  out  on  the  ninth  of  November, 
1775-t  He  was  immediately  importuned  by  the  In 
dians  in  the  vicinity  of  his  post  for  his  "assent  to  their 
making  inroads  upon  the  frontiers  of  Pennsylvania" ; 
but  this,  he  declares,  he  declined,  giving  as  a  reason 
his  "not  having  received  orders  on  the  subject.''^  The 
desire  of  the  savages,  however,  conclusively  shows  that 
their  war-spirit  had  already  been  aroused  against  the 
settlers  of  the  Trans-Alleghany  country. 

Hamilton  was  under  the  necessity  of  acting  dis 
cretionary  for  a  time  after  his  arrival,  because  inter 
course  with  the  lower  part  O'f  the  Province  of  Quebec 
had  been  cut  O'ff  "by  the  rebels  possessing  themselves 
of  Montreal,"  and  he  could  not  therefore  confer  with 
Governor  Carleton.  He  did  not  feel  authorized  to 
advise  the  Indians  (much  less  to  assist  them)  to  take 
up  the  hatchet  then  against  the  "rebels."  Still,  his 
talk  was  calculated  (notwithstanding  his  counsel  to 
them  was  to  sit  still  for  the  present)  to  promote  their 
thirst  for  war ;  and  there  were  some  braves,  whose 
desire  for  plunder  was  so  great  that  they  marched  to 
Sandusky  on  their  way  to  strike  the  settlements  to  the 
eastward,  but  were  turned  back  by  the  importunities 
of  John  Dodge  at  that  place.0 

The  Lieutenant  Governor  had  had  considerable  ex 
perience  in  military  matters.  He  had  been  a  lieuten- 

t  Hamilton  to  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth,  Aug.  29  —  Sept.  2, 
1776.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 

*  Hamilton  to  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth,  Aug.  29— Sept.  2, 
1776. —  Haldimand  MSS.  (See  Appendix,  Note  III.) 

I  Hamilton   to   Haldimand,  July  6,    1781,   Germain   MSS. 

0  Dodge's  Narrative  Alman's  Remembrances  (1779), 
vol.  VIII.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  IV.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        13 

ant  in  the  Fifteenth  Regiment  of  Foot,  but  had  left 
the  army  upon  the  conclusion  of  peace  between  France 
and  England,  in  1763.  Immediately  on  his  arrival  at 
Detroit,  he  appointed  as  his  secretary,  Philip  Dejean, 
who  was,  besides,  justice  of  the  peace,  judge,  notary, 
auctioneer,  and  receiver  of  public  money. 

As,  under  the  Quebec  Act  of  1774  —  the  one  organ 
izing  the  Province  of  Quebec,  Canada  —  "all  commis 
sions,  to  judges  and  other  offices  were  revoked,  an 
nulled  and  made  void,  from  and  after  the  first  day  of 
May,  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  seventy-five,"* 
the  acting  as  judge  by  Dejean  after  that  date,  even  had 
he  previously  sufficient  warrant  for  officiating  in  that 
capacity,  was,  notwithstanding  the  orders  and  approval 
of  Hamilton,  clearly  illegal.  Nevertheless,  he  contin 
ued  to  act,  —  he  having  in  December,  after  all  com 
missions  had  been  by  the  law  abrogated,  caused  a  man 
to  be  apprehended  for  murder,  sentenced  him  to  death, 
and  carried  the  sentence  into  execution,  —  the  Lieu 
tenant  Governor  aiding,  by  ordering  out  a  guard  of 
soldiers  upon  the  occasion. 

Far  to  the  northward  where  the  waters  of  Lake 
Michigan  meet  and  mingle  with  those  of  the  Huron 
lake,  situated  on  the  south  side  of  the  straits,  was  the 
post  of  Michilimackinac,  in  command  of  which,  in  the 
Spring  of  1775,  was  Captain  Arent  Schuyler  De  Pey- 
ster,  having  a  garrison  composed  of  two  companies  of 
the  Eighth  regiment.  His  duties  were  not  onerous. 
His  time  was  divided  between  looking  after  the  fur 
traders,  holding  long  "talks"  with  the  savages,  and 

*  British  Statutes  at  Large  (London,  1776),  vol.  XII, 
pp.  184-187,  where  the  Quebec  Act  is  printed  in  full.  It 
may  be  found  also  in  the  Collections  of  the  State  Historical 
Society  of  Wisconsin,  vol.  XI,  pp.  53-60. 


14        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

in  "courting  the  muses"  —  he  wrote  some  creditable 
poetry.*  He  had  been  advised  of  the  appointment  of 
Patrick  Sinclair  as  Lieutenant  Governor  and  Superin 
tendent  of  Indian  Affairs  of  his  post  and  its  depend 
encies. 

.  But  Sinclair,  who  was  commissioned  on  the  seventh 
of  April,  upon  arriving"  at  New  York,  was  taken  pris 
oner  and  on  the  third  of  August  following  was  sum 
moned  before  Congress  on  the  charge  of  being  com 
missioned  to  employ  the  Indians  in  the  Northwest  in 
coercing  the  Colonies.  He  was  sent  to  Long  Island 
as  a  paroled  prisoner  and  the  next  year  allowed  to 
return  to  England.  As  no  other  person  was  appointed 
in  Sinclair's  place,  it  was  a  necessity  for  De  Peyster 
to  act  as  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs,  the  duties 
of  which  office  he  had  already  attended  to. 

He  was  slow  to  enter  upon  the  policy  of  arousing 
the  Indians  and  inflaming  them  on  the  British  side  as 
against  the  Americans,  being  content  at  first  to  urge 
them  only  to  a  close  friendship  with  his  Government. 
His  post  and  its  dependencies  were  far  removed  from 
the  strife  on  the  seaboard.  The  Pottowattomies  were 
scattered  from  near  St.  Joseph  (formerly  a  French 
post  of  some  note  a  considerable  distance  up  the  river 
of  the  same  name  emptying  into  Lake  Michigan)  to 
the  mouth  of  the  stream  on  which  it  was  located,  thence 
around  Lake  Michigan  to  the  site  of  the  present  city 

"  Chicago  and  to  that  of  .Milwaukee ;  and  there  had 

vet  appeared  no  one  from  Michilimackinac  or  De- 

with  belts  and  wampum  to  excite  them  against 

'rebellious   Colonies ;"   so   also   the   Winnebagoes 

1   Winnebago  lake,  and  the  Menomonees  upon 


,   passim. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC.        15 

Green  bay,  had  not  been  advised  to  hold  themselves 
in  readiness  to  go  to  war  against  the  Americans.  But 
the  Chippewas  were  already  aroused  by  the  representa 
tives  of  La  Corne  Saint-Luc ;  and  the  "talks"  of  their 
chiefs,  with  De  Peyster  during  the  first  half  of  1776, 
served  to  increase  among  them  and  contiguous  nations 
the  thirst  for  war ;  for  it  had  been  determined  to  raise 
warriors  in  that  region  to  march  to  the  St.  Lawrence : 
and  soon  a  band  was  on  the  march  thither.  But  these 
savage  allies  were  to  aid  the  regular  British  forces ; 
they  were  not  to  march  against  unprotected  settlers. 

On  the  same  day  of  the  appointment  of  Sinclair 
as  Lieutenant  Governor  and  Superintendent  of  Mich- 
ilimackinac  and  its  dependencies,  Captain  Mathew 
Johnson  was  named  for  a  like  office  at  the  Illinois ; 
but  he  was  "never  able  to  attend  to  his  duty"  there ; 
indeed  he  did  not  reach  his  post  at  all,  —  for  reasons, 
however,  satisfactory  to  the  British  government,  as  he 
continued  to  draw  his  salary  (two  hundred  pounds 
sterling)  during  the  war.* 

At  the  beginning  of  the  Revolution,  there  were 
British  armed  vessels  —  an  incipient  navy  —  upon 
Lakes  Erie,  Huron  and  Michigan,  which  materially 
aided  the  military  forces,  gave  efficiency  to  the  labors 
of  Indian  agents,  and  everywhere  on  those  waters  pro 
tected  the  fur-trade.  On  the  lake  first  mentioned 
were  four  armed  schooners,  built  at  Detroit,  and  four 
sloops.  There  was  also  one  sloop  on  Lake  Huron  and 
one  on  Lake  Michigan. 

*  Haldimand  to  Grey  Cooper  (Secretary  of  the  Treasury)  , 
July  8  and  the  letter  of  the  latter  of  May  8,  1781.  —  Haldi 
mand  MSS.  The  Receiver  General's  accounts,  in  May, 
1782,  also  show  a  charge  of  £100,  as  "Lieutenant  Governor  of 
the  Illinois"  —  being  for  6  months  salary, 


16        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

The  schooners  on  Lake  Erie  were  the  Gage,  built 
in  1772,  mounting  sixteen  carriage-guns  and  six  swiv 
els,  requiring  for  her  crew  forty-eight  men  including 
officers ;  —  the  Dunmore,  built  the  same  year,  carry 
ing  twelve  guns  and  four  swivels,  requiring  for  her 
complement  of  men,  thirty-six,  including  officers;  the 
Hope,  built  in  1771,  and  taken  into  the  King's  employ 
on  the  twenty-fifth  day  of  August,  1775,  mounting 
four  four-pounders,  and  two  two-pounders,  requiring 
a  crew  of  eighteen  men,  including  officers ;  and  the 
Faith,  built  in  1774,  carrying  four  swivels,  and  re 
quiring  for  her  complement,  ten  men,  including  officers. 
The  sloops  on  that  lake  were  the  Chippewa,  four  swiv 
els  ;  the  Angelica,  six ;  the  Felicity ,  number  unknown ; 
the  Adventure,  four.  The  sloop  on  Lake  Huron  was 
the  Welcome ;  on  Lake  Michigan,  the  Archangel. 

Early  in  the  year  1776,  Congress,  in  hopes  of  keep 
ing  quiet  the  various  Indian  nations  of  the  West, 
appointed  George  Morgan  to  be  Indian  Agent  for  the 
Middle  Department,  Richard  Butler  having  previously 
acted  in  that  capacity. 

At  Detroit,  the  opening  of  Spring  was  followed  by 
considerable  activity.  Hamilton  busied  himself  in 
sending  to  surrounding  tribes  invitations  to  a  treaty, 
accorded  by  De  Peyster  at  Michilimack,  who  urged 
those  near  him  to  attend. 

It  was  late  in  August  before  the  savages  assembled 
at  Detroit  at  the  Lieutenant  Governor's  call,  deputies 
being  present  from  the  Ottawas,  Chippewas,  Wyan- 
dots,  Shawanese,  Senecas,  Delawares,  Cherokees  and 
Pottawattomies.  Five  days  were  consumed  and  many 
speeches  made.  The  conclusion  of  the  Indians  was 
(they  being  of  course  guided  in  this  by  Hamilton) 
that  the  "rebels"  had  imposed  upon  them  by  falsely 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC.'       17 

stating-  the  cause  of  the  dispute  between  them  and  the 
British ;  that  they  had  misrepresented  their  own  ability 
to  cope  with  the  mother  country ;  and  that  they  were 
not  really  well-disposed  towards  the  several  nations 
of  savages,  members  of  which  were  then  deliberating. 
The  Lieutenant  Governor  told  the  Indians  to  content 
themselves  with  watchfully  observing  the  enemy's 
motions ;  that  if  the  "Virginians"  attacked  them  he 
would  give  notice  to  all  the  tribes ;  and  that  an  attack 
on  one  was  to  be  followed  by  all  uniting  against  them. 

Morgan,  at  Pittsburgh,  was  early  informed  of 
Hamilton's  determination  to  assemble  the  Western 
Indians  in  council  at  Detroit  and  he  resolved  to  thwart 
the  Lieutenant  Governor  so  far  as  lay  in  his  power, 
by  visiting  a  number  of  the  nations  within  reach.  He 
went  as  far  beyond  the  Ohio  as  the  Scioto  and  saw 
chiefs  of  the  Delawares  and  Shawanese.  Early  in 
July,  he  left  the  lower  Shawanese  town  on  his  way 
back  to  Pittsburgh.  Deputies  from  some  of  the  most 
friendly  nations  met  commissioners  at  Fort  Pitt,  late 
in  October ;  and  the  "talks"  to  some  extent  neutralized 
the  efforts  Hamilton  had  made  with  these  Indians. 

While  at  the  lower  Shawanese  village,  Morgan  had 
other  plans  revolving  in  his  mind  beside  those  relat 
ing  to  the  Detroit  council.  He  had  friends  in  the 
Illinois  and  he  knew  the  previous  condition  of  affairs 
in  that  country ;  besides,  he  had  received  a  full  account 
of  Connolly's  letters  to  Captain  Lord.  He  wrote  to 
two  of  his  acquaintances  at  Kaskaskia,  asking  them  as 
to  the  "exact  situation  of  affairs"  in  that  country ; 
"and  what  quantity  of  flour  and  beef"  they  "could 
furnish  a  company  or  two  of  men  with,"  on  the  twenty- 
fifth  of  the  next  December.  The  letter  he  entrusted 


18       -HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

to  an  Indian  who  was  known  as  "Silver  Heels."  Mor 
gan  added  that  he  would  depend  on  his  two  friends 
for  the  desired  information  by  the  return  o>f  Silver 
Heels,  "who  ought  to  be  at  Pittsburgh  as  early  in 
September  as  possible,  as  there  is  a  great  treaty  to  be 
held  in  that  month  with  all  the  Western  nations.  If 
one  of  you  could  come  along  with  him,  it  may  be 
much  to  your  advantage  but  you  should  be  very  secret 
with  respect  to  your  business."* 

It  is  doubtful  if  any  man  in  the  Trans-Alleghany 
region  was  better  qualified  to  lead  "a  company  or  two 
of  men"  to  the  Illinois  country  than  Morgan.  His 
long  and  intimate  acquaintance  there,  and  his  knowl 
edge  of  the  best  method  to  adopt  to  have  approached 
undiscovered  the  different  settlements,  peculiarly  fitted 
him  for  successfully  carrying  forward  an  expedition 
against  the  Illinois  towns.  And  that  he  should  have 
planned  such  an  undertaking  clearly  shows  that  he 
had  a  full  understanding  of  the  defenceless  condition 
of  those  villages  and  the  feasibility  of  their  capture 
with  a  comparatively  small  force.  However,  his  letter 
fell  into  unfriendly  hands ;  for  at  least  one  of  the 
parties  addressed,  was  in  sympathy  with  the  Mother 
country ;  hence,  no  answer  was  received  giving  the 
desired  information  as  to  supplies  obtainable  at  Kas- 
kaskia ;  and  the  undertaking  was  abandoned. 

Captain  Lord  and  his  garrison,  under  orders  from 
Carleton,  departed  from  Fort  Gage  on  the  first  day  of 

*  Morgan  to  Richard  Winston  and  Patrick  Kenedy, 
July  6,  1776.  —  Haldimand  MSS.  (Appendix,  Note  V.) 
An  interesting  biographical  sketch  of  Morgan  may  be  found 
in  The  Canonsburg  (Pa.)  Notes,  of  Dec.  19,  1891,  by  Julia 
M.  Harding.  See  also  Hildreth's  Pioneer  History;  Wash 
ington-Irvine  Correspondence,  History  of  the  Girty's  and 
Mason's  Early  Chicago  and  Illinois. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       10 

May,  1776,  to  join  the  British  forces  by  way  of  Detroit 
and  the  Lakes ;  but  the  fortification  he  did  not  dis 
mantle —  the  ordnance  and  munitions  of  war  he  left 
behind.  He  had  previously  been  instructed  to  intrust 
the  administration  of  affairs  in  the  Illinois  to  such 
person  as  he  judged  proper.  He  selected  Philip 
Rocheblave,  as  his  successor,  leaving  his  family  in  care 
of  the  latter  —  a  sufficient  proof  of  his  confidence  in 
the  man.* 

It  was  the  opinion  of  Rocheblave  that  the  reason 
for  the  recall  of  Captain  Lord  from  the  Illinois  was 
because  the  condition  of  affairs  upon  the  St.  Lawrence 
made  it  better  to  have  him  and  his  garrison  nearer  the 
center  of  hostilities,  serving  as  an  "aid  in  gathering 
together  all  his  forces,  which,  as  a  skillful  leader,  he 
considered  to  be  too  far  distant. "f 

"The  unfortunate  situation,"  afterwards  wrote 
Rocheblave,  "in  which  his  Excellency,  Mr.  Carleton, 
found  himself  at  the  end  of  the  year  1775,  at  the  time 
of  the  invasion  of  the  Province  of  Quebec  by  the 
Colonists,  obliged  him  to  recall  the  garrison  o>f  this 
country  [the  Illinois]  in  order  to  fall  back  on  Detroit 
and  Niagara.  The  General  judged  wisely  that,  under 
the  circumstances,  it  were  better  not  to  have  the  few 
troops  belonging  to  him  widely  dispersed,  when,  in 
consolidating  them,  lay  his  only  chance  of  accomplish 
ing  anything.  In  consequence  of  his  orders,  Captain 
Hugh  Lord,  who  had  governed  this  country  with  gen 
eral  satisfaction,  evacuated  it,  leaving  me  in  charge 

*  See  Mason's  Early  Chicago  and  Illinois,  pp.  360-381, 
for  an  interesting  biographical  sketch  of  Rocheblave. 

t  Rocheblave  to  Germain,  Jan.  22,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


20        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

without  troops,  without  money,  without  resources. "f 
The  explanation,  however,  for  Captain  Lord's  depart 
ure  as  stated  by  Carleton  was,  "to  avoid  unnecessary 
expense". J  It  is  probable,  notwithstanding,  that  the 
reasons  given  by  Rocheblave  were  such  as  the  Gover 
nor  had  mentioned  to  the  Captain,  in  his  orders  to  the 
latter  to  leave  the  Illinois. 

t  Same  to  same,   Feb.  28,   1778,   in  same. 

I  Carleton   to   Hamilton,    September    15,    1777,    in    same. 


CHAPTER   II. 

IT  was  in  the  Spring  of  1776,  that  Clark,  on  foot  and 
alone,  again  went  to  Kentucky  —  a  particular 
scheme,  in  addition  to  his  desire  to  continue  his 
surveying,  having  this  time  drawn  him  thither. 

Tradition  has  this  account  of  his  arrival:  He  was 
first  met  by  a  young  lad  who  had  gone  a  few  miles 
from  Harrodsburg  to  turn  some  horses  out  on  the 
range.  The  boy  had  killed  a  duck  and  was  roasting 
it  by  a  fire  he  had  kindled,  when  he  was  surprised  by 
the  near  approach  of  a  fine  soldierly-looking  man  who 
said :  "How  do  you  do  my  little  fellow?  What  is  your 
name?  Are  you  not  afraid  of  being  in  the  woods  by 
yourself  ?"  The  stranger  was  evidently  hungry ;  for, 
on  being  invited  to  eat,  he  speedily  finished  the  entire 
duck ;  and  when  the  boy  asked  him  his  name  his  reply 
was  that  it  was  Clark  and  that  he  had  come  out  to  see 
what  "you  brave  fellows  in  Kentucky  are  doing,  and 
to  help  you  if  there  is  need/' : 

But  this  story  has  evidently  gathered  unto  itself 
what  at  first  was  foreign  to  it.  The  "fine  soldierly- 
looking  man"  raises  a  suspicion  of  having  been  sup 
plied  by  the  relator,  to  whom,  in  after  years,  Clark 
became  a  hero;  and,  that  he  came  out  "to  see  what 
the  brave  fellows  in  Kentucky  were  doing  and  to  help 

*  Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  37n.,  where  it  is  printed  for  the 
first  time,  and  as  taken  from  the  lips  of  the  boy  that  was  - - 
but  then  an  old  man.  The  story  as  related  by  Butler  has, 
with  more  or  less  variation,  been  frequently  repeated.  (See 
Harper's  Magazine,  vol.  XXII,  p.  786;  Collins's  Kentucky 
(ed.  of  1877),  p.  610;  Roosevelt's  The  Winning  of  the  West, 
vol.  I,  p.  319.) 


22        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC. 

them  if  there  was  need,"  would  hardly  have  been 
spoken  to  one  so  young;  besides,  these  words  induce 
the  belief  of  their  having  been  added  as  the  result  of 
knowing  the  visitor's  subsequent  career. 

Clark  was  now  greeted  (if  traditionary  accounts 
are  to  be  taken  as  veritable),  with  considerable  dis 
tinction.  His  appearance  "was  well  calculated  to 
attract  attention ;  it  was  rendered  particularly  agree 
able  by  the  manliness  of  his  deportment,  the  intelli 
gence  of  his  conversation ;  but  above  all,  by  the 
vivacity  and  boldness  of  his  spirit  for  enterprise,  and 
the  determination  he  expressed  of  becoming  an  inhab 
itant  of  the  country.  He  fixed  on  no  particular  resi 
dence  ;  was  much  in  the  woods ;  incidentally  visiting 
the  forts  and  the  ostensible  camps ;  he  cultivated  the 
acquaintance  of  the  people,  and  acquired  an  extensive 
knowledge  of  the  various  objects  presented  to  his 
curiosity  or  to  his  inspection."* 

A  considerable  number  of  the  Kentucky  settlers, 
some  of  them  of  particular  prominence,  had  already 
petitioned  the  Convention  of  Virginia  to  take  them 
under  their  protection.  "As  we  are  anxious,"  they 
said,  "to  concur  in  every  respect  with  our  brethren  of 
the  United  Colonies  for  our  just  rights  and  privileges 
as  far  as  our  infant  settlements  and  remote  situation 
will  admit  of,  we  humbly  expect  and  implore  to  be 
taken  under  the  protection  of  the  Honorable  Con 
vention  of  the  Colony  of  Virginia,  of  which  we  cannot 
help  thinking  ourselves  still  a  part,  and  request  your 
kind  interposition  in  our  behalf,  that  we  may  not  suf 
fer  under  the  rigorous  demands  and  impositions  of 
the  gentlemen  styling  themselves  proprietors."  At  the 

*  Marshall's  Kentucky,  vol.  I,  p.  46.  It  is  evident  that 
gome  of  this  is  overdrawn. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        23 

same  time,  these  petitioners  called  in  question  the  title 
of  Henderson  and  Company  to  the  lands,  which  had 
been  purchased  by  them  of  the  Cherokees.* 

The  petition  was  received  by  the  Virginia  Con 
vention  ;  and  a  counter  petition  was  presented  by  Hen 
derson  and  his  partners.  That  the  Assembly  recog 
nized  the  Kentucky  settlements  as  being  within  the 
limits  of  Virginia  is  evident  from  its  action.  Com 
missioners  were  appointed  to  take  evidence  on  behalf 
of  the  government  against  the  several  claimants  under 
Indian  purchases;  but,  in  the  meantime,  it  was  or 
dered  that  actual  settlers  should  not  be  disturbed. f 

The  scheme  of  Clark,  which  was  one  of  the  causes 
of  his  return  to  Kentucky,  was  (if  his  own  words 
subsequently  published  are  to  be  relied  on)  a  political 
one.  Having  no  faith  in  Henderson  and  Company's 
claim,  it  was,  but  natural  he  should  reflect  upon  the 
condition  of  affairs  in  the  new  settlements  so  far  as 
their  government  was  concerned.  "I  left  the  country 
(Kentucky),"  he  wrote  years  after,  "in  the  Fall  of 
1775,  and  returned  in  the  Spring  following.  While  in 
Virginia,  I  found  there  were  various  opinions  respect 
ing  Henderson  and  Company's  claim.  Many  thought 
it  was  good ;  others  doubted  whether  or  not  Virginia 

*  'The  Petition  of  the  Inhabitants  and  some  of  the 
Intended  Settlers  of  that  Part  of  North  America  now 
Denominated  Transylvania  to  the  Honorable,  the  Conven 
tion  of  Virginia."  (Hall's  Romance  of  Western  History, 
where,  on  pp.  381-385,  the  Petition  is  published  in  full; 
also  in  Morehead's  Address,  pp.  159-161;  and  in  other  works.) 
There  were  eighty-eight  signers,  headed  by  James  Harrod 
and  Abm.  Hite,  Jun.  The  language  of  the  petitioners  was 
unequivocal :  they  considered  themselves  Virginians  and 
asked  the  protection  of  the  Colony  of  Virginia. 

t  Henry's  Patrick  Henry,   vol.  I,   pp.  449,  450. 


24        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC. 

could  with  propriety  have  any  pretensions  to  the  coun 
try.  This  was  what  I  wanted  to  know.  I  immediately 
fixed  on  my  plans,  viz. :  that  of  assembling  the  people 
—  getting  them  to  elect  deputies,  and  send  them  to 
treat  with  the  Assembly  of  Virginia  respecting  the  con 
dition  of  the  country.  If  valuable  conditions  were 
procured,  we  could  declare  ourselves  citizens  of  the 
State;  otherwise,  we  might  establish  an  independent 
government,  and,  by  giving  away  a  great  part  of  the 
lands  and  disposing  of  the  remainder,  we  would  not 
only  gain  great  numbers  of  inhabitants,  but  in  a  good 
measure  protect  them."  * 

Such  was  the  visionary  plan  of  young  Clark,  for 
mulated  in  his  mind  in  ignorance  of  the  claim  of  Vir 
ginia  already  put  forth,  and  of  the  wishes  of  the  set 
tlers  in  Kentucky  —  at  least,  of  a  large  portion  of 
them — as  clearly  stated  in  their  petition  to  the  Vir 
ginia  Con  vent  ion.  f 

Besides,  it  is  evident  (if  his  statements  just  men 
tioned  are  to  be  taken  as  true)  that  his  plan  was  deter- 

*  Clark's  Memoir — Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p. 
115.  The  words  used  by  Clark  —  "When  I  was  in  Virginia," 
were  intended. by  him  to  express  only  that  he  was  then  at 
his  home  over  the  mountains  and  not  in  the  Kentucky 
country. 

t"I  told  them  [Jefferson  and  Wythe]  that  the  Transyl 
vania  Company,  suspecting  that  they  might  be  misrepresented, 
had  sent  me  to  make  known  to  the  gentlemen  of  the  Congress, 
our  friendly  intentions  towards  the  cause  of  liberty,  etc. 

etc They  observed  that  our  purchase  was  within 

their  [Virginia's]  charter  and  gently  hinted  that,  by  virtue 
of  it,  they  might  claim  the  whole."  —  James  Hogg  to  the 
Transylvania  Company,  January,  1776.  (See  Hall's  Romance 
of  Western  History,  p.  394.)  Then,  too  there  was  the  action 
taken  by  the  Virginia  Convention  upon  the  receipt  of  the 
petition  of  the  Kentucky  settlers,  just  mentioned. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        25 

mined  upon  while  knowing  nothing  of  the  limits  of 
Fincastle  country  to  the  westward  as  previously  de 
fined  by  Virginia. 

In  the  scheme  of  Clark  —  idle  and  fanciful  though 
it  was  —  there  can  be  seen  an  ambition  not  wholly  to 
be  despised.  It  was  a  conviction  by  no  means  of  the 
baser  sort  that  could  prompt  him  at  once  to  determine 
upon  his  plans  and  to  return  to  Kentucky  resolved,  if 
possible,  to  carry  them  out.  Did  he  see  political  pre 
ferment  in  their  consummation?  It  would  not  have 
been  surprising  or  disreputable  if  such  were  the  fact, 
as  it  is  evident  he  had  not  fully  considered  that  his 
idea  carried  with  it  a  menace  which  in  the  end  surely 
would  have  denied  the  Kentucky  settlers  a  hearing  in 
the  Virginia  Convention.  But,  as  will  now  be  seen, 
these  Kentucky  pioneers  were  true  to  the  principle  set 
forth  in  the  petition  already  sent  forward  to  the  Vir 
ginia  authorities. 

All  that  is  known  concerning  the  time  of  Clark's 
return  to  Kentucky  is,  that  it  was  in  the  Spring  of 
17/6.  His  coming  was  a  surprise,  as  it  was  supposed 
he  had  left  the  country  permanently.  His  designs, 
crude  as  they  were,  he  confided  to  no  one.  Tradition 
says  it  was  generally  believed  in  the  settlements  that 
love  of  adventure  alone  had  brought  him  back. 

He  subsequently  (in  his  declining  years)  put  upon 
record  that,  to  carry  his  scheme  into  effect,  he  ap 
pointed  a  general  meeting  at  Harrodsburg,  for  the 
sixth  of  June,  asserting,  at  the  same  time,  that  some 
thing  would  be  proposed  to  the  people  that  very  much 
concerned  them.  "The  reason  I  had,"  are  his  words 
in  his  narration  of  the  steps  taken  by  him,  "for  not 
publishing  what  I  wished  to  be  done  before  the  day 
was,  that  the  people  should  not  get  into  parties  on  the 


26        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

subject;  and  as  every  one  would  wish  to  know  what 
was  to  be  done,  there  would  be  a  more  general  meeting. 
But,  unfortunately,  it  was  late  in  the  evening  of  that 
day  (sixth  of  June)  before  I  could  get  to  the  place. 
The  people  had  been  in  some  confusion,  but  at  last  con 
cluded  that  the  whole  design  was  to  send  delegates  to 
the  Assembly  of  Virginia  with  a  petition  praying  the 
Assembly  to  accept  them  as  such  —  to  establish  a  new 
county,  etc.  The  polls  were  opened,  and  before  I  had 
arrived  they  had  far  advanced  in  the  election,  and  had 
entered  with  such  spirit  into  that  I  could  not  get 
them  to  change  the  principles  —  that  of  delegates  with 
a  petition,  to  that  of  deputies  under  the  authority  of 
the  people.  In  short,  I  did  not  take  much  pains."  * 

Evidently  Clark,  in  thus  claiming  the  honor  of  hav 
ing  called  the  Harrodsburg  meeting,  credited  to  him 
self  what  he  was  not  entitled  to.f  "George  Rogers 
Clark,"  says  a  Kentucky  historian,  "came  to  Kentucky 
for  the  first  time  in  1775.  His  second  visit  was  in  .the 
spring  of  1776,  when  the  minds  of  many  of  the  inhab 
itants  were  agitated  by  the  claim  of  the  Transylvania 
Company  to  the  tract  of  country,  over  which  . 
they  had  attempted  to  establish  a  proprietary  govern 
ment.  Dissatisfaction  had  arisen  from  numerous 
causes,  which  I  need  not  pause  to  enumerate.  They 
will  be  found  embodied  in  a  petition  of  the  inhabitants 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
115,  116. 

f  The  short-comings  of  Clark  in  his  Memoir  have  usually 
been  attributed  to  his  age;  but  another  cause  hereafter  to  be 
mentioned,  had  more  to  do  with  them  than  his  years.  It 
becomes  necessary  to  point  out  in  this  narrative  many  of 
his  questionable  statements,  because  of  their  having  been 
so  often  relied  upon  as  altogether  truthful  by  writers'  of 
Western  history. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC.        27 

and  some  of  the  intended  settlers  of  that  part  of  North 
America,  now  denominated  'Transylvania'  addressed 
'to  the  Honorable  Convention  of  Virginia.'  The  Vir 
ginia  settlers  in  general,  did  not  recognize  the  validity 
of  the  Company's  jurisdiction,  and  declined  making  in 
vestments  in  their  land  office.  The  emigrants  from 
North  Carolina,  many  of  whom  were  brought  by  Col. 
Henderson  to  the  country,  were  satisfied  with  the  titles 
derived  from  him,  and  made  their  purchases  accord 
ingly.  There  were  others,  and  a  numerous  class,  with 
a  proper  foresight  of  results  who  preferred  to  take 
possession  of  such  lands  as  suited  them,  and  await  the 
perfection  of  their  claims,  until  the  pending  conflict 
of  opinion  should  be  determined,  and  the  rightful  sov 
ereignty  declared.  On  the  6th  of  June,  1776,  a  meet 
ing  was  held  at  Harrodsburg  to  take  the  subject  into 
consideration* 

Another  Kentucky  historian  says  that  Clark,  after 
his  arrival  in  the  spring  of  1776  in  the  Kentucky 
country,  "reflected  deeply  on  its  value  to  Virginia  as 
a  frontier,  as  well  as  to  the  rest  of  the  Confederacy. 
The  result  of  these  meditations  suggested  to  him  the 
importance  of  assembling  the  people  of  the  country  at 
Harrod's  Town,  as  it  was  then  called,  to  devise  a 
plan  for  the  public  defense."f  Now,  this  declaration 
of  the  Kentucky  author  is  based  solely  upon  Clark's 
scheme  as  already  given.  He  overlooks  the  principal 
idea,  which  related  to  the  Transylvania  Company's 
claim,  and  sees  only  the  one  to  protect  the  settlers 
from  savage  aggression ;  and  he  would  have  the  plan 
formulated  by  Clark  after  his  arrival. 

*  James  T.  Morehead:  see  his  Address,  pp.  52,  53.  (The 
italicising  in  the  extract  is  mine.) 

f  Mann  Butler :  History  of  Kentucky,  p.  37. 


28        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Other  writers  have  followed  in  the  same  strain,  add 
ing  somewhat  to  these  declarations;  as,  for  instance: 
"His  (Clark's)  mind  had  been  very  early  impressed 
with  the  immense  importance  of  this  frontier  country 
(Kentucky)  to  the  security  of  the  parent  State  of  Vir 
ginia,  as  well  as  to  the  whole  Confederacy,  and  his 
reflections  on  this  subject  led  him  to  perceive  the  im 
portance  of  a  more  thorough,  organized,  and  extensive 
system  of  public  defense,  and  a  more  regular  plan  of 
military  operations  than  the  slender  resources  of  the 
Colonies  had  yet  been  able  to  effect."* 

A  recent  writer  suggests  that  Clark,  in  view  of 
the  depredatitons  which  the  Ohio  Indians  were  com 
mitting  on  the  settlements,  called  the  Harrodsburg 
meeting  to  devise  a  plan  of  defense ;  and  that  his 
"plan  was,  to  appoint  delegates  who  should  proceed 
to  Williamsburg  and  petition  the  Assembly  that  Ken 
tucky  be  made  a  county  of  Virginia."f  The  erection, 
however,  of  a  new  county  to  include  the  Kentucky 
settlements  does  not  seem  to  have  been  any  part  of 
Clark's  plan. 

The  readiness  with  which  Clark  gave  up  his  own 
project  for  that  adopted  by  the  settlers,  clearly  evinces 
a  determination  not  very  deeply  rooted  in  his  mind  to 
carry  out  his  plan.  But  there  was  reason  why,  had  he 
been  ever  so  determined  before  hand,  he  should  now 
be  easily  placated.  The  people  had  agreed  to  send 
two  delegates  to  take  a  petition  to  the  Virginia  Assem 
bly  and  were  voting  for  Clark  and  John  Gabriel  Jones 
for  that  duty.  They  were  elected,  it  seems,  without 
opposition. 

*  Lewis  Collins.    (See  his~Kentucky  (ed.  of  1877),  p.  133.) 
fDr.    William    Frederick    Poole,    in   Winsor's   Narrative 
and  Critical  History  of  America,   vol.  VI,   p.  716 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        29 

The  prime  object  in  view  was  for  these  two  to 
endeavor,  if  possible,  to  have  a  new  Virginia  county 
established,  which  should  include  all  the  Kentucky  set 
tlements.  It  is  plain  that  Clark  equally  with  his  asso 
ciate,  soon  entered  spiritedly  into  the  settlers'  scheme. 
Both  accepted  the  position  to  which  they  had  been 
elected,  hoping  not  only  to  reach  Williamsburg  before 
the  adjournment  of  the  Convention,  but  that  they 
might  be  admitted  to  seats  therein.* 

Before  the  adjournment  of  the  Harrodsburg  meet 
ing,  the  credentials  of  the  two  delegates  were  made  out 
and  handed  them,,  and  a  committee  was  apopinted 
to  draft  a  petition  to  the  Virginia  Assembly  expres 
sive  of  the  views  of  the  settlers  as  to  the  impending 
conflict  and  as  to  their  desire  for  the  formation  of  a 
new  county.  The  document  was  dated  the  twentieth 
of  June  and  was  given  to  Jones  and  Clark  to  be  pre 
sented  to  the  Virginia  Convention  on  their  arrival  at 
Williamsburg.  It  announced  that,  if  the  Kentucky 
county  could  be  admitted  as  a  separate  and  distinct 
county  of  Virginia  (such,  at  least,  is  the  inference  to 
be  drawn  from  the  words  used)  the  people  would 
willingly  and  cheerfully  aid  to  the  utmost  of  their 
ability  every  measure  to  secure  the  public  peace  and 
safety ;  particularly,  they  said,  would  it  be  impolitic 
for  "such  a  respectable  body  of  prime  riflemen  to  re 
main  in  a  state  of  neutrality,"  while  on  the  seaboard 
there  was  going  forward  on  part  of  the  patriot  Colo 
nists  a  desperate  struggle  for  their  liberties. f 

*See    Appendix,    Note    VI. 

f  Petition  of  the  Committee  of  West  Fincastle,  June  20, 
1776,  printed  in  John  Mason  Brown's  Oration  —  "Blue 
Licks"  pamphlet.  I  have  not  attempted  to  follow  closely  the 
wording  of  the  Petition. 


30        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

With  their  credentials  as  delegates  and  the  peti 
tion  of  the  West  Fincastle  committee,  Clark  and 
Jones  started  for  Williamsburg.  "They  selected  the 
route  through  the  southern  wilderness,  as  it  has  gen 
erally  been  called,  lying  between  the  settlements  of 
Kentucky  and  those  of  Virginia,  under  most  distres 
sing  difficulties.  Independent  of  losing  one  of  their 
horses,  the  extreme  wetness  of  the  season,  and  the 
.danger  of  kindling  fires,  amidst  straggling  parties  of 
Indians  the  traveling  through  the  mud,  and  over  the 
mountains,  brought  on  a  most  painful  affliction,  called 
by  the  hunters,  the  scald-feet.  In  this  complaint,  the 
feet  become  useless  from  excessive  tenderness,  and 
the  skin  decays;  so  that  the  weight  of  the  body  be 
comes  intolerable.  While  suffering  in  this  manner, 
'more  torment  than  I  ever  experienced/  says  Clark, 
'before  or  since,'  they  found  the  old  stations  near  the 
Cumberland  Gap  and  Martin's  Fort,  where  they 
fondly  hoped  to  have  found  relief,  both  abandoned  by 
the  inhabitants  owing  to  fear  of  the  Indians.  At  the 
latter  place,  however,  the  desperate  party  determined 
to  stay  until  their  feet  were  recovered ;  when  this  was 
accomplished,  they  again  prosecuted  their  journey."  * 

The  two  delegates,  had  they,  without  any  mishap, 
made  the  quickest  possible  time  upon  their  way  out, 
could  not  have  reached  Williamsburg  before  the  break 
ing  up  of  the  Assembly.  That  body,  meeting  on  the 
sixth  of  May,  1776,  was  in  session  one  day  less 
than  two  months,  having  adjourned  on  the  fifth  of 
July,  to  meet  again  on  the  seventh  of  October  follow 
ing,  at  the  same  place;  meanwhile  the  declaration  of 
independence  had  been  made,  a  State  constitution  had 

*  Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  38. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        31 

been  adopted,  and  Patrick  Henry  elected  governor. 
There  was,  therefore,  no  other  alternative ;  the  petition 
of  the  West  Fincastle  pioneers  must  be  held  until  the 
Virginia  Legislature  should  again  convene. 

Concerning  the  journey  from  Kentucky  of  himself 
and  Jones,  Clark  wrote,  years  after,  in  these  words: 
"In  a  few  days  (after  his  and  Jones's  election  as  dele 
gates),  we  set  out  for  Williamsburg,  in  the  hope  of 
arriving  before  the  Assembly,  then  sitting,  should 
rise.  .  .  .  We  proceeded  on  our  journey  as  far  as 
Botetourt  county,  and  there  learned  that  we  were  too 
late;  for  the  Assembly  had  already  risen.  We  were 
now  at  a  loss,  for  some  time,  to  determine  what  to  do, 
but  concluded  we  should  wait  until  tne  fall  session  — 
in  the  meantime,  I  should  go  to  Williamsburg  and  at 
tempt  to  procure  some  powder  for  the  Kentuckians 
and  watch  their  interests.  We  parted.  Mr.  Jones  re 
turned  to  Holston  to  join  the  forces  that  were  raising, 
in  order  to  repel  the  Cherokee  Indians  (as  they  had 
lately  commenced  hostilities)  and  myself  proceeded  to 
the  governor  of  Virginia."  * 

"Mr.  Henry,  the  governor,"  are  the  further  words 
of  Clark,  "lay  sick  at  his  seat  in  Hanover,  where  I 
waited  on  him,  and  produced  my  vouchers.  He  ap 
peared  much  disposed  to  favor  the  Kentuckians,  and 
wrote  by  me  to  the  Council  on  the  subject.  I  attended 
them.  My  application  was  for  five  hundred  pounds  of 
powder  to  be  conveyed  to  Kentucky  as  an  immediate 
supply.  After  various  questions  and  consultations, 
the  Council  agreed  to  furnish  the  supply;  but,  as  we 
were  a  detached  people,  and  not  yet  united  to  the  State 
of  Virginia,  and  uncertain  until  the  sitting  of  the  As- 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p. 
116.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  VII.) 


32        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

sembly  whether  we  should  be,  they  would  only  lend  us 
the  ammunition  as  friends  in  distress,  but  that  I  must 
become  answerable  for  it  in  case  the  Assembly  should 
not  receive  us  as-  citizens  of  the  State.  I  informed 
them  that  it  was  out  of  my  power  to  pay  the  expense 
of  carriage  and  guards  necessary  for  those  supplies  — 
that  the  British  officers  on  our  frontiers  were  making 
use  of  every  effort  to  engage  the  Indians  in  the  war  — 
that  the  people  might  be  destroyed  for  want  of  this 
small  supply  —  and  that  I  was  in  hopes  they  would 
consider  these  matters,  and  favor  us  by  sending  the 
ammunition  at  public  expense.  They  replied  that  they 
were  really  disposed  to  do  everything  for  us  in  their 
power  consistent  with  their  office,  which  I  believed. 
After  making  use  of  many  arguments  to  convince  me 
that  even  what  they  proposed  was  a  stretch  of  power, 
they  informed  me  that  'they  could  venture  no  farther/ 
An  order  was  issued  to  the  keeper  of  the  magazine  to 
deliver  me  the  ammunition. 

"I  had  for  twelve  months  past  reflected  so  much 
on  the  various  situations  of  things  respecting  ourselves 
and  the  Continent  at  large,  that  my  resolution  was 
formed  before  I  left  the  Council  chamber.  I  resolved 
to  return  the  order  I  had  received,  and  immediately 
repair  to  Kentucky,  knowing  that  the  people  would 
readily  fall  into  my  first  plan  —  as  what  had  passed 
had  almost  reduced  it  to  a  certainty  of  success.  I 
wrote  to  the  Council  and  inclosed  the  order,  informing 
them  that  I  had  weighed  the  matter  and  found  that  it 
was  out  of  my  power  to  convey  those  stores  at  my 
own  expense  such  a  distance  through  an  enemy's 
country  —  that  I  was  sorry  to  find  we  should  have  to 
seek  protection  elsewhere,  which  I  did  not  doubt  of 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        33 

getting  —  that  if  a  country  was  not  worth  protecting, 
it  was  not  worth  claiming,  etc. 

"What  passed  on  the  reception  of  this  letter,  I  can 
not  tell.  It  was,  I  suppose,  nothing  more  than  what 
might  be  expected  by  a  set  of  gentlemen  zealous  in 
the  welfare  of  their  country,  and  fully  apprised  of 
what  they  might  expect  to  take  place  in  Kentucky. 
I  was  sent  for.  Being  a  little  prejudiced  in  favor  of 
my  mother  country,  I  was  willing  to  meet  half  way."  * 

Clark  then  gives  correctly  the  result.  What  was 
done  is  shown  by  the  record  of  the  Council : 

"In  Council,  Williamsburg,  August  23d,  1776. 

"Mr.  George  Rogers  Clark  having  represented  to 
this  Board  the  defenceless  state  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Kentucky ;  and  having  requested,  on  their  behalf,  that 
they  should  be  supplied  with  five  hundred  weight  of 
gun-powder ; 

"Ordered,  therefore,  that  the  said  quantity  of  gun 
powder  be  forthwith  sent  to  Pittsburgh,  and  delivered 
to  the  commanding  officer  at  that  station,  by  him  to  be 
safely  kept,  and  delivered  to  the  said  George  Rogers 
Clark,  or  his  order,  for  the  use  of  the  said  inhabitants 
of  Kentucky. 

JOHN  PAGE,  Pres't. 

"Test,  Arch'd  Blair,  Cl.  Coun."  f 

Clark,  it  will  be  noticed,  says  he  told  the  Council 
that  the  British  officers  on  the  frontiers  were  making 
use  of  every  effort  to  engage  the  Indians  in  the  war. 
This,  he  hardly  would  have  said,  for  the  reason  that, 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
116,  117. 

t  Butler's  Kentucky,  ed.  of  1834,  p.  394;  ed.  of  1836, 
p.  488. 

3 


34        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

first,  such  was  not  the  fact,  and,  second,  he  had  not 
been  in  a  position  to  find  it  out  even  if  true.  But  his 
most  absurd  declaration  is,  that  he  at  once  resolved  to 
send  back  the  order  he  had  received,  and  immediately 
return  to  Kentucky,  knowing  that  the  people  would 
readily  fall  into  his  first  plan,  "as  what  had  passed  had 
almost  reduced  it  to  a  certainty  of  success."  He  for 
gets  that  the  people  had  not  sent  him  to  the  Virginia 
Council  at  all.  He  forgets  that  he  had  not  been 
requested  by  the  Kentuckians  to  obtain  powder  in 
any  quantity.  He  forgets  that  he  had  agreed 
with  his  associate  Jones,  to  remain  at  Willliams- 
burg  until  the  Virginia  Assembly  had  again  met. 
The  statement,  also,  that  the  Council  suggested  to 
Clark  that  the  Kentuckians  were  a  detached  people 
and  not  yet  united  to  the  State  of  Virginia,  and  it  was 
uncertain  until  the  sitting  of  the  Assembly  whether 
they  would  be  so  united,  —  would  hardly  have  been 
made,  in  view  of  what  had  already  taken  place  in 'the 
Convention  as  to  the  determination  of  the  western  lim 
its  of  Virginia  in  the  constitution  it  had  formed  and 
particularly  in  view  of  the  action  taken  upon  the  peti 
tion  sent  in  by  the  Kentuckians  some  time  before. 

That  Clark  applied  for  the  powder  and  after  some 
trouble  succeeded  in  getting  it  and  also  an  order  for 
its  transportation  to  Pittsburgh  is  certain:  but  that 
the  circumstances  occurred  in  all  the  detail  given  by 
him  years  after  his  success,  is  inadmissable. 

It  is  probable,  however,  that  since  the  middle  of  the 
previous  year,  Clark  had,  as  he  asserts,  reflected  much 
on  the  various  situations  of  things  respecting  the  Ken 
tucky  settlements  and  "the  Continent  at  large."  It 
agrees  with  his  previous  declaration  and  with  the 
course  pursued  by  him  after  his  return  from  over  the 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        35 

mountains.  But  that  his  reflections  thus  far  had 
mostly  been  confined  to  the  carrying"  out  of  his  plans 
as  developed  at  the  Harrodsburg  meeting  is  evident.* 

Upon  assembling,  in  the  fall,  of  the  Virginia  Leg 
islature,  Clark  and  Jones  laid  before  the  members  the 
petition  of  the  Kentucky  settlers.  "I  waited  until  the 
fall  session,"  says  Clark,  "when  I  was  joined  by  my 
colleague,  Mr.  Jones.  We  laid  our  papers  before  the 
Assembly.  They  resolved  that  we  could  not  take  our 
seats  as  members,  but  that  our  business  should  be  at 
tended  to.  Colonel  Henderson,  one  of  the  purchasers 
of  the  Cherokees,  being  present,  retarded  our  business. 
Colonel  Arthur  Campbell,  one  of  the  members,  being 
also  opposed  to  our  having  a  new  county,  wished  us 
annexed  to  the  county,  on  the  frontiers  of  which  we 
lay,  and  which  he  represented.  This  caused  it  to  be 
late  in  the  session  (December  7,  1776)  before  we  got 
a  complete  establishment  of  a  county  by  the  name  of 
Kentucky."  f 

The  boundaries  of  the  new  county  corresponded 
with  those  of  the  present  State  of  Kentucky. 

The  marauds  of  the  savages  across  the  Ohio  east 
and  south  into  the  border  settlements  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Virginia  (including  in  the  last-named  State  those 
of  Kentucky),  are  now  to  be  noticed  to  the  end  that  a 
just  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  danger,  actual  and  im 
aginary,  which,  in  1776,  threatened  the  settlers. 

Two  prisoners  were  captured  in  Kentucky  by  the 
Mingoes  and  hurried  across  the  Ohio  —  fortunately, 
however,  before  Morgan  had  left  the  Scioto,  and  they 
were  rescued  by  him  and  brought  safely  to  Pittsburg. 

*  See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  VIII. 
f  Clark's   Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana    (ed.    of   1859),    pp. 
117,    118.     (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,    Note  IX.) 


36        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC, 

Then  followed  the  killing,  by  a  party  of  Shawanese,  of 
two  persons  near  the  Big  Bone  Lick  and  the  taking  of 
a  woman  prisoner;  but  the  latter  was  rescued  by  a 
pursuing  party  of  borderers,  who  killed  and  scalped 
two  of  the  Shawanese.  In  September,  it  came  to  the 
knowledge  of  Morgan,  at  Fort  Pitt,  that  a  number  of 
Wyandots,  two  Mingoes  and  one  Ottawa  were  on  the 
war  path  down  the  Hockhocking  river,  intending  to 
strike  the  Virginians.  The  timely  warning  saved  the 
borderers ;  for  the  proper  precautions  were  at  once 
taken,  which  the  savages  discovering  they  returned 
without  striking  a  blow. 

Notwithstanding  the  treaty  at  Fort  Pitt  with  the 
savages  late  in  October,  the  borderers  did  not  slacken 
their  efforts  looking  to  protection  against  their  inroads. 
All  along  the  Ohio,  on  its  eastern  side,  from  a  consid 
erable  distance  below  Wheeling  to  Pittsburgh,  block 
houses  were  erected  at  intervals,  and  the  militia 
"scouted"  in  the  woods  in  various  directions.  The 
most  fear  was  from  a  gang  of  Mingoes  living  at  'Plug- 
gystown  (now  Delaware,  Ohio),  who  had  no  repre 
sentation  at  the  Fort  Pitt  treaty.  Before  the  close  of 
the  year,  they  had  committed  a  number  of  depreda 
tions  across  the  Ohio,  killing  and  making  prisoners  of 
the  borderers  without  distinction  of  sex  and  regard 
less  of  age.  Their  depredations  were  at  points  as  far 
up  the  Ohio  as  Grave  Creek  and  as  far  down  that 
stream  as  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha.  At  Fort 
Randolph,  a  Virginia  post  at  the  junction  of  the  river 
last  named  with  the  Ohio,  Captain  Matthew  Arbuckle, 
in  command  of  its  garrison,  used  his  earnest  endeavors 
to  keep  the  Shawanese  friendly ;  notwithsanding 
which,  some  of  these  Indians,  in  December,  went  upon 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        37 

a  maraud  into  the  Kentucky  settlements,  killing  three 
persons. 

Such  was  the  extent  of  the  hostile  acts  of  the  In 
dians  from  the  country  northwest  of  the  Ohio  (among 
whom  as  we  have  seen  were  the  Pluggystown  savages, 
who  were  a  lawless  band,  without  any  tribal  relation). 
There  was  not  yet  "open  war"  on  the  part  of  any  of 
the  nations  of  that  region  against  the  border  settle 
ments  of  the  Americans ;  that  is,  none  of  the  nations, 
assembled  in  solemn  council  called  by  the  British  or 
their  own  chiefs,  had  taken  up  the  hatchet,  as  yet,  to  go 
upon  the  warpath  across  the  Ohio. 

When  Clark  had  finally  succeeded  not  only  in  se 
curing  the  five  hundred  pounds  of  powder  asked  for, 
but  in  getting  it  transported  to  Pittsburg  at  the  expense 
of  Virginia,  he  wrote  to  Kentucky  giving  information 
of  what  had  been  done  and  recommending  that  the 
ammunition  be  sent  for  and  conveyed  to  that  country 
by  water ;  but  his  letter  was  not  received ;  and,  before 
the  two  delegates  got  ready  to  start  home,  they 
learned  it  had  not  left  Pittsburgh ;  so  they  resolved  to 
go  that  way  on  their  return.  They  got  the  powder 
and  with  it  hurried  down  the  Ohio  until  a  point  was 
reached  near  where  Maysville  now  stands,  where  their 
cargo  was  secreted.  They  then  proceeded  on  their 
journey.  At  McClelland's  Station,  after  their  arrival 
a  party  of  ten  men  (including  Jones,  who  went  as 
guide)  under  John  Todd,  all  on  horseback,  set  out  to 
bring  in  the  powder,  Clark  meanwhile  going  on  to 
Harrodsburg.  On  the  twenty-fifth  of  December  they 
we're  attacked  on  the  waters  of  the  Licking  by  Indians, 
Jones  and  two  others  being  killed,*  and  one  taken 

*  See  Clark's  Diary  printed  in  Morehead's  Address,  pp. 
161-164.  This  Diary,  in  general,  is  very  reliable;  what  few 


38        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

prisoner.  The  residue  escaped.  A  second  attempt  was 
more  successful.  On  the  second  of  January,  1777, 
James  Harrod  raised  a  company  of  about  thirty  men 
at  Harrodsburg  (where  Clark  had  arrived  some  days 
before)  .to  go  after  the  hidden  cargo.  They  returned 
without  accident  with  their  valuable  freight. f 

ernors  occur  are  mostly  inadvertencies  —  mere  slip  of  the 
pen.  The  entry  concerning  the  disaster  mentioned  above 
is  as  follows :  "Dec.  25  —  Ten  men  going  to  the  Ohio  for 
powder  —  met  on  the  waters  of  Licking  Creek  by  Indians 
and  defeated  —  John  G.  Jones,  William  Graden  and  Josiah 
Dixon  were  killed."  (As  to  the  injustice  done  the  memory 
of  Jones  by  several  writers  of  Western  history,  see  Appendix 
to  our  narrative,  Note  X.) 

f  Collin's  Kentucky  (ed.  of  1877),  pp.  466,  467,  552,  656. 
(See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  XI.) 


CHAPTER   III. 

SCARCELY  had  the  year  1777  been  ushered  in 
when  Hamilton,  at  Detroit,  bestirred  himself  to 
keep  awake  the  war-spirits  of  the  savages.  He 
was  soon  written  to  by  Carleton  from  Quebec :  i4I  am 
persuaded  you  will  exert  your  best  endeavors,"  said 
the  Governor,  ''for  the  king's  service.  To  your  own 
prudence  and  judgment,  at  this  distance,  much  must 
be  left.  The  Legislative  Council  is  met,  but  the  times 
will  not  at  present  admit  of  any  regulations  being 
n  dde  for  distant  or  remote  situations.  While  the  com 
motions  continued,  the  power  of  the  sword  is  chiefly, 
and  indeed  only  to  be  trusted  to.  The  keeping  the 
Indians  firm  in  the  king's  interest  ought  to  be  your 
first  and  great  object."  * 

There  were  of  the  military  force  at  Detroit,  at  this 
date,  under  command  of  Captain  Lernoult,  four  com 
panies  of  the  Eighth  (or  King's)  regiment,  one  com 
pany  of  the  Forty-seventh,  and  two  of  Butler's  Rang 
ers  —  in  all  about  five  hundred.  The  policy  as  to  the 
Rangers  after  Sir  William  Johnson's  time  was,  to 
intermix  them  with  the  Indians  when  on  service,  and 
to  have  them  commanded,  not  by  regulars,  but  by  "In 
dian  officers ;"  that  is,  by  officers  from  the  Indian 
Department.f  At  first,  none  but  those  acquainted 

*  Carleton  to  Hamilton,  Feb.  2,  1777. — Haldimand 
MSS. 

f  The  Captains  and  Lieutenants  in  the  Indian  Depart 
ment  were  known  as  "Indian  officers"  to  distinguish  them 
from  officers  in  the  regular  service  or  in  the  militia.  This 
distinction  was  kept  up  in  all  the  correspondence  of  the 
commandants  of  the  various  ports  with  their  superior  offi 
ces.  But  it  is  to  be  understood  those  "Indian  officers"  were 
never  Indians. 


40        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

with  the  Indians  and  their  language  were  admitted  to 
the  corps ;  —  afterward,  this  distinction  was  not  made. 

The  arrival  of  several  bands  of  savages  at  Detroit 
from  their  "wintering,"  gave  Hamilton  the  strongest 
assurance  that  they  would  prove,  in  the  end,,  subser 
vient  to  his  will.  Their  behavior  was  such  as  to  com 
mend  itself  to  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  who  had  pre 
viously  expressed  his  desire  to  meet  them  and  other 
Indian  Deputies  of  the  various  nations,  in  council. 
He  was  anxiously  awainting  orders  from  Carleton  as 
to  what  should  be  done  in  their  management,  and  he 
wrote  the  Governor  that  he  would  detain  them  from 
the  time  of  their  assembling  for  a  "talk"  until  he  got 
advices  from  "below."  "As  some  of  the  Delawares 
appear  wavering,"  said  he,  "I  have  given  one  of  their 
chiefs  a  belt  with  a  present,  to  induce  them  to  come 
to  the  council,  when  I  make  no  doubt  they  will  be 
influenced  as  I  would  wish."  * 

The  "talk"  with  the  savages,  proposed  by  Hamil 
ton  was  necessarily  delayed.  By  the  middle  of  June, 
he  wrote  Carleton  that  the  Ottawas,  Chippewas,  Potta- 
wattamies,  Hurons  (Wyandots),  and  Miamis  had 
arrived ;  that  there  were  also  some  Shawanese,  Dela 
wares  and  Weas,  but  they  were  few  in  number.  "I 
shall  keep  them"  together,"  he  said,  "as  long  as  pos 
sible,  in  expectation  of  your  Excellency's  orders.  Al 
though  the  majority  should  return  home,  I  make  no 
doubt  of  being  able  to  assemble  a  thousand  warriors 
in  three  weeks  should  your  Excellency  have  occasion 
for  their  services."  *  He  did  not  know  that  "orders" 

*  Hamilton    to    Carleton,     May    11,     1777.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 

*  Hamilton    to    Carleton,    June    15,    1777.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        41 

from  even  a  higher  source  were  on  their  way  authoriz 
ing  him  to  employ  the  savages  in  the  work  of  devasta 
tion  and  death;  such,  however,  was  the  fact,  as  will 
now  be  seen. 

Before  the  ending  of  March,  Lord  George  Ger 
main  had  written  Carleton :  "In  consideration,"  said 
his  lordship,  "of  the  measures  proper  to  be  pursued  in 
the  next  campaign,  the  making  a  diversion  on  the 
frontiers  of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania,  by  parties  of 
Indians  conducted  by  proper  leaders,  as  proposed  by 
Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton,  has  been  maturely 
weighed.  That  officer,  in  his  letter  to  the  Earl  of 
Dartmouth,  dated  at  Detroit,  the  second  of  September 
last,  said  that  he  had  then  with  him  Deputies  from 
the  Ottawas,  Chippewas,  Wyandots,  Shawanese,  Se- 
necas,  Delawares,  Cherokees  and  Pottawatamies  that 
their  inclination  was  for  war;  and  that  it  was  with 
much  difficulty  he  had  restrained  them  from  hostilities, 
which  he  thought  it  his  duty  to  do,  rinding  by  a  letter 
from  you  dated  the  nineteenth  of  July,  that  you  had 
sent  back  some  Ottawas  who  kad  offered  their  ser 
vices,  desiring  them  to  hold  themselves  in  readiness 
next  spring. 

"There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  Indians  are 
still  in  the  same  disposition  and  that  they  will  readily 
and  eagerly  engage  in  any  enterprise  in  which  it  may 
be  thought  fit  to  employ  them  under  the  direction  of 
the  king's  officers;  and  as  it  is  his  Majesty's  resolu 
tion  that  the  most  vigorous  efforts  should  be  made, 
every  means  employed  that  providence  has  put  into 
his  Majesty's  hands,  for  crushing  the  rebellion  and 
restoring  the  constitution,  it  is  the  king's  command 
that  you  should  direct  Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton 
to  assemble  as  many  of  the  Indians  of  his  district  as 


42        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

he  conveniently  can,  and  placing  proper  persons  at 
their  head,  to  whom  he  is  to  make  suitable  allowances, 
to  conduct  their  parties,  and  restrain  them  from  com 
mitting  violence  on  the  well  affected  and  inoffensive 
inhabitants,  employ  them  in  making  a  diversion  and 
exciting  an  alarm  upon  the  frontiers  of  Virginia  and 
Pennsylvania.  And  as  there  is  good  ground  to  be 
lieve  there  are  considerable  numbers  of  loyal  subjects 
in  those  parts  who  would  gladly  embrace  an  oppor 
tunity  of  delivering  themselves  from  the  tyranny  and 
oppression  of  the  rebel  committees ;  it  is  his  Majesty's 
pleasure  that  you  do  authorize  and  direct  Lieutenant 
Governor  Hamilton  to  invite  all  such  loyal  subjects 
to  join  him  and  assure  them  of  the  same  pay  and  al 
lowances  as  are  given  to  his  Majesty's  corps  raised 
in  America,  and  that  such  of  them  as  shall  continue 
to  serve  his  Majesty  until  the  rebellion  is  suppressed 
and  peace  restored  shall  each  receive  his  Majesty's 
bounty  of  200  acres  of  land. 

"These  offers  it  is  hoped  will  induce  many  persons 
to  engage  in  the  king's  service;  which  may  enable 
Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton  to  extend  his  opera 
tions,  so  as  to  divide  the  attention  of  the  rebels,  and 
oblige  them  to  collect  a  considerable  force  to  oppose 
him,  which  cannot  fail  of  weakening  their  main  army 
and  facilitating  the  operations  directed  to  be  carried 
on  against  them  in  other  quarters,  and  thus  bring 
the  war  to  a  more  speedy  issue  and  restore  those  de 
luded  people  to  their  former  state  of  happiness  and 
prosperity,  which  are  the  favorite  wishes  of  the  royal 
breast  and  the  great  object  of  all  his  Majesty's  meas 
ures. 

"A  supply  of  presents  for  the  Indians  and  other 
necessaries  will  be  wanted  for  this  service,  and  you 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


will  of  course  send  Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton 
what  is  proper  and  sufficient. 

"Inclosed  is  a  lot  of  names  of  several  persons  re 
siding  on  the  frontiers  of  Virginia  recommended  by 
Lord  Dunmore  for  their  loyalty  and  attachment  to 
Government  and  who,  his  Lordship  thinks,  will  be 
able  to  give  great  assistance  to  Lieutenant  Governor 
Hamilton  through  their  extensive  influence  among  the 
inhabitants."  * 

This  letter  was  sent  by  Carleton  to  Hamilton  for 
his  "instruction  and  guidance."  "I  have  only  to  add," 
says  the  Governor,  "that  Lieutenant  Colonel  St.  Leger 
has  similar  orders  for  the  savages  of  the  Five  Nations 
and  others.  You  will,  therefore,  be  careful  not  to  at 
tempt  to  draw  off  any  destined  for  his  command.  Let 
me  know  what  provisions  you  want ;  in  the  meantime 
some  shall  be  sent  you  at  a  venture. "f 

The  time  had  now  come  when  the  cruel  sugges 
tions  of  Hamilton  to  Germain  —  "the  making  a  di 
version  on  the  frontiers  of  Virginia  and  Pennsyl 
vania  by  parties  of  Indians  conducted  by  proper  lead 
ers"  —  was  to  be  acted  upon,  —  the  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  being  fully  prepared  to  carry  out  his  murderous 
plan.  -It  had  been  devised  by  the  latter  with  a  full 
knowledge  of.  what  the  awful  consequences  would  be 
if  adopted  by  the  British  government.  To  him  and  to 
him  alone  is  to  be  charged  the  baleful  proposal  —  de 
structive  in  its  conception,  and  full  of  calamities  and 
most  deadly  sorrow  and  woe. 

*  Germain  to  Carleton,  March  26,  1777.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  (See  as  to  the  list  of  the  names  sent,  of  persons 
supposed  to  be  loyal,  History  of  the  Girty's,  pp.  32,  33.) 

t  Carleton  to  Hamilton,  May  21,  1777.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  XII.) 


44        HISTORY  OP   CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

The  next  day  after  the  reception  of  Carleton's 
orders,  Hamilton  called  together  the  savages  in  coun 
cil  and  then  delivered  to  them  a  war  hatchet,  which 
they  accepted  with  a  war  dance.  This  was  the  real 
beginning  of  the  WESTERN  BORDER  WAR  —  the  letting 
loose  the  "horrible  hell-hounds  of  savage  war"  upon 
the  exposed  frontiers.  It  was  on  the  seventeenth  of 
June.  On  the  eighteenth  he  read  to  the  assembled 
savages  a  proclamation  intended  for  distribution  upon 
the  border.*  "By  virtue,"  were  its  words,  "of  the 
power  and  authority  to  me  given  by  his  Excellency, 
Sir  Guy  Carleton,  Knight  of  the  Bath,  Governor  of 
the  Province  of  Quebec,  General  and  Commander-in- 
Chief,  etc.,  etc.,  I  assure  all  such  as  are  inclined  to 
withdraw  themselves  from  the  tyranny  and  oppres 
sion  of  the  rebel  committees,  and  take  refuge  in  this 
settlement,  or  any  of  the  posts  commanded  by  his 
Majesty's  officers,  that  they  shall  be  humanely  treated ; 
shall  be  lodged  and  victualed ;  and  such  as  are  officers 
in  arms  and  shall  use  them  in  defense  of  his  Majesty 
against  rebels  and  traitors  till  the  extinction  of  this 
rebellion,  shall  receive  pay  adequate  to  their  former 
stations  in  the  rebel  service;  and  all  common  men 
who  shall  serve  during  that  period  shall  receive  his 
Majesty's  bounty  of  two  hundred  acres  of  land."  f  '  A 
few  of  these  proclamations,  dated  subsequently,  found 

*  "Published  [June  18th]  the  Proclamation  encouraging 
the  Royalists,  to  the  nations  in  the  Council."  —  Hamilton's 
"Journal"  of  June  16-July  3,  1777:  Haldimand  MSS.  (The 
"nations"  he  refers  to  were  the  several  Indian  nations  assem 
bled  at  Detroit  and  then  in  council.) 

f  Pennsylvania  Archives,  First  Series,  Vol.  V,  p.  402. 
From  the  wording  of  the  proclamation,  it  is  evident  tha* 
Hamilton  based  it  upon  the  "Instructions"  of  Germain  ^is 
given  in  his  letter  to  Carleton  of  the  twenty-sixth  of  March, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        45 

their  way  across  the  border,  being  left  where  incursions 
were  made  (and  sometimes  on  the  dead  bodies  of  bor- 
dermen)  by  the  savages  or  by  Rangers  accompanying 
them.*  They  were  signed  by  Hamilton  as  "Lieutenant 
Governor  and  Superintendent;"  and  some  were  soon 
read  by  indignant  Whigs  in  the  settlements  on  the 
headwaters  of  the  Ohio. 

The  Lieutenant  Governor  was  not  slow  in  his  en 
deavors,  by  every  means  in  his  power,  to  engage  the 
savages  and  fit  them  out  for  the  aggressive  Indian 
war  against  the  "rebels"  which  had  at  his  express 
suggestion  and  desire,  been  authorized  by  Germain. 
White  officers  were  appointed  to  go  with  the  warriors ; 
and  war-hatchets  were  sent  to  the  various  nations  not 
in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Detroit.  To  the  savages 
who  accepted  these,  ammunidon  was  immediately  sent. 
Near  the  middle  of  July,  Hamilton  wrote  Germain : 
"Parties  are  daily  setting  off  for  the  frontiers,  which 
have  with  most  of  them  interpreters  and  are  furnished 
with  placards  inviting  the  well-disposed  to  have  re 
course  to  his  Majesty's  clemency;  and  towards  the 
last  of  the  month  he  sent  his  Lordship,  "an  account 
of  Indians  gone  to  war"  from  Detroit: 

"Seven  parties  before  the  i8th  of  July.  .    178 

"Interpreters  and  Rangers   22 

"From  the   i8th  to  the  2;th   [of  July] 

eight  parties in 

"Indian  officers  and  Rangers  8 

"Total   319 

"I  have  no  particular  account  of  the  distant  nations 
except  the  Miamis  [at  the  head  of  the  Maumee,]  who, 

*  Pennsylvania  Archives,  First  Series,  vol.  V,  p.  741. 
Compare,  in  this  connection,  Farmer's  History  of  Detroit 
and  Michigan,  p.  249. 


46        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

I  am  told,  are,  most  of  them,  preparing  to  set  out  with 
some  volunteer  whites  from  their  villages. 
Parties  are  forming  daily  [at  Detroit],  and  a  perfect 
cheerfulness  and  obedience  has  appeared  hitherto."  * 

Hamilton  sent  Germain  another  letter,  early  in 
September,  wherein  he  said:  "At  the  best  computa 
tion  which  can  be  made  eleven  hundred  and  fifty 
warriors  are  now  dispersed  over  the  frontiers.  Seven 
hundred  are  on  the  list  who  have  had  their  equipment 
or  at  least  ammunition  from  this  place  [Detroit]"  . 

.  The  officers  [that  is,  white  men  —  "Indian  of 
ficers"]  who  have  been  appointed  to  the  savages  have 
gone  to  war  with  them,  and  some  of  them  acquitted 
themselves  well."f 

Now  that  Hamilton  might  better  confer  with 
Carleton  concerning  public  affairs,  he  concluded  to 
make  a  flying  visit  to  Montreal  and  Quebec.  He  left 
Detroit  in  the  early  days  of  September,  having  been 
preceded  a  considerable  time  by  Captain  Lernoult. 

Because  of  the  success  of  the  "rebels"  to  the  east 
ward,  Carleton  became  alarmed  lest  the  Western  posts 

*  Hamilton  to  Germain,  July  24  and  27,  1777. — Haldi- 
mand  MSS.  "Hamilton,  the  lieutenant-governor  of  Detroit, 
in  obedience  to  orders  from  the  secretary  of  state  [Lord 
George  Germain]  sent  out  fifteen  several  parties,  consisting 
in  the  aggregate  of  two  hundred  and  eighty-nine  hraves 
with  thirty  white  officers  and  rangers."  [Bancroft  —  History 
of  the  United  States  (ed.  of  1885),  vol.  V,  p.  168.]  This, 
it  will  be  seen,  is  taken  from  the  letter  just  cited;  but,  as 
given  by  that  historian,  it  is  indefinite.  "White  officers" 
might  include  Detroit  militia  or  even  regulars;  whereas,  as 
the  letter  shows,  the  whites  were  interpreters,  "Indian  offi 
cers,"  and  Rangers;  the  first  and  last  mentioned  may  or  may 
not  have  been  officers. 

t  Hamilton  to  Germain,  Sept.  5,  1777.  —  Haldimand 
MSS, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       47 

might  be  menaced ;  so  he  sent  orders  on  the  twenty- 
first  to  have  Hamilton  repair  immediately  to  Detroit. 
"I  shall  order,"  said  he,  "Captain  Lernoult  there  as 
soon  as  possible  which  will  settle  all  matters  that  have 
been  in  dispute."  *  And  three  days  after,  he  wrote 
the  Niagara  commandant  [Lieutenat  Colonel  Mason 
Bolton]  that  he  understood  a  disagreement  had  hap 
pened  at  Detroit,  between  the  officer,  Captain  John 
Mompesson,  who  had  commanded  there  in  the  absence 
of  Captain  Lernoult,  and  Hamilton,  "which,"  said  he, 
"must  be  attended  with  bad  consequences  to  the  king's 
service."  "I  am  to  desire,"  he  continued,  "you  will 
order  Captain  Lernoult  to  return  and  take  the  com 
mand  of  that  post,  on  whose  judgment  and  discretion 
I  can  thoroughly  rely  to  put  an  end  to  these  animosi 
ties.  I  make  no  doubt  he  will  be  an  aid  and  assistant 
to  Mr.  Hamilton  in  all  things  in  his  department  and 
in  forwarding  everything  else  which  may  tend  to  the 
public  good."  f 

In  the  first  half  of  October  Hamilton  returned  to 
Detroit,  giving  his  whole  time,  immediately  upon  his 
arrival,  to  public  affairs.  And  not  long  thereafter 
Captain  Lernoult  again  was  in  comamnd  of  the  Detroit 
garrison. 

*Car*eton  to  Cramahe,  Sept.  21,  1777.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  Hamilton  was  then  in  Quebec.  See  a  letter  of  that 
date  written  there,  but  without  signature  (generally,  although 
erroneously,  ascribed  to  John  Dodge)  ,  published  in  Almon's 
Remembrances,  vol.  VI,  and  in  the  Virginia  Gazette  July 
17,  1779,  concerning  Hamilton's  official  oppression  at  Detroit. 
This  letter  is  also  printed  in  full  in  Farmer's  History  of 
Detroit  and  Michigan,  p.  173. 

fSame  to  Col  Bolton,  Sept.  24,  1777.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


48        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Turning  our  attention  from  Detroit  to  the  settle 
ments  upon  the  upper  waters  of  the  Ohio,  we  shall  see 
that,  early  in  1777,  small  war  parties  of  savages  made 
their  appearance  therein.  However,  these  marauds 
were  only  the  casual  droppings  of  the  rain  before  the 
pitiless  storm  —  Hamilton  at  Detroit,  as  already 
shown,  not  having,  until  the  beginning  of  summer, 
sent  his  Indian  allies,  armed  and  equipped,  against 
the  border  settlements  to  kill  and  destroy.  The  most 
serious  trouble  continued  from  the  Pluggystown  In 
dians.  Preparations  were  set  on  foot  to  punish  .these 
savages,  by  Virginia ;  but  the  undertaking  was  finally 
laid  aside  for  fear  of  offending  the  Delawares,  upon 
the  Muskingum  and  the  neutral  Shawanese  farther  to 
the  westward. 

As  early  as  September,  1775,  Virginia  wisely 
garrisoned  the  dilapidated  Fort  Pitt  and  held  posses 
sion  of  it  until  the  first  day  of  June,  1777,  when  Gen 
eral  Edward  Hand  of  the  Continental  army  arrived 
and  assumed  the  chief  command  of  the  Western  De 
partment.  In  August  following,  Mingoes  from  the 
Scioto,  Wyandots  from  the  Sandusky,  with  a  few 
Shawanese  and  Delawares  crossed  the  Ohio  to  attack 
Fort  Henry  (formerly  Fort  Fincastle)  at  Wheeling. 
It  was  the  first  attempt  by  the  Indians  against  the 
frontier,  in  force,  after  Hamilton's  virtual  declaration 
of  war  against  the  borderers.  Fifteen  Americans  were 
killed  and  five  wounded.  Soon  after,  at  a  distance  be 
low  the  fort,  the  Wyandots  attacked,  on  the  east  side 
of  the  Ohio,  a  reconnoitering  expedition  sent  out  from 
Wheeling,  killing  twenty-one,  wounding  several,  and 
capturing  one.  When,  finally,  the  Shawanese  all 
joined  the  hostile  nations,  there  could  no  longer  be  any 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        49 

doubt  but  open  war  had  been  resolved  upon  all  the 
Ohio  Indians  (except  the  Delawares  and  possibly  the 
Wyandots,  notwithstanding  Morgan  had  made  stren 
uous  efforts  to  induce  them  to  hold  another  council 
with  him  at  Pittsburgh. 

At  the  date  of  Hamilton's  being  made  Lieutenant 
Governor  of  Detroit,  David  Abbott  was  appointed  to 
a  like  office  for  Vincennes ;  but  he  did  not  reach  his 
post  until  the  nineteenth  of  May,  1777.  He  met  with 
a  cordial  welcome  from  the  inhabitants,  mostly  French 
Canadians,  whom  he  required  to  take  an  oath  of 
fidelity  to  his  Government.  He  formed  three  com 
panies  of  militia ;  but  the  savages  of  the  Wabash  gave 
him  considerable  trouble.  "The  Indians  are  striving," 
he  wrote,  uto  set  the  French  [meaning  the  Vincennes 
people]  against  the  English  Government  and  have  told 
many  of  them  I  should  not  live  long.  I  am  endeavor 
ing  to  secure  myself  as  well  as  I  can,  by  stockading 
the  cabin  I  am  in.  I  have  likewise  desired  Monsieur 
Rocheblave  to  send  me  four  pieces  of  cannon  from 
the  Illinois,  which  he  writes  he  has  done."  * 

Towards  the  close  of  the  year  Abbott  wrote  that  his 
stockade  was  half  finished  and  would  be  completed  in 
a  fortnight. f  It  was  named  Fort  Sackville.f 

*  Abbott  to  Carleton,  July  9,  1777.  —  Haldimand  MSS.; 
and  Rocheblave  to  the  former,  June  1,  1777  —  in  same.  The 
cannon  were  iron  and  were  sent  on  the  second  of  June 

t  Abbott  to  Carleton,  Nov.  23,   1777.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 

J  The  old  cathedral  at  the  end  of  Second  street  [in 
Vincennes]  marks  the  spot  of  the  beginning  of  Caucasian 
civilization  in  Indiana,  while  hard  by  it  on  the  river  bank 
stood  the  first  rude  fort  in  Indiana,  and  a  little  later  the 
stronger  Fort  Sackville."  (E.  A.  Bryan,  in  "Indiana's  First 


50        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

During  the  next  January  he  determined  to  leave 
his  post  and  return  to  Detroit.  His  reasons  were  to 
avoid  the  large  expense  for  presents  to  the  savages 
(who  were  soon  expected  from  their  "hunt")  which 
he  would  be  compelled  to  incur  or  exasperation  on 
their  part  would  follow.  He  started  from  Vincennes 
on  the  third  day  of  February,  1778,  and  after  a  pain 
ful  journey  through  the  woods  arrived  with  his  family 
at  Detroit  on  the  seventh  of  March,  —  leaving  J.  M. 
P.  Legras  in  command  of  the  militia  upon  his  de 
parture. 

While  at  Vincennes,  Abbott  used  every  effort  to 
keep  the  Wabash  Indians  firm  in  their  alliance  with 
his  Government,  nevertheless,  so  much  was  he  ham 
pered  with  a  scarcity  of  supplies  that,  in  reality,  as 
his  letters  to  his  superiors  show,  his  aid  amounted  to 
little;  hence  it  was  that  the  savages  near  him  were 
inclined  to  listen  to  Spanish  emissaries,  and  were  at 
times  open  in  their  declarations  of  friendship  also  for 
the  "Long  Knives."  The  borderers  in  Kentucky, 
therefore,  (and  Clark  was  of  the  number),  put  too 
much  stress  upon  the  help  given  the  Indians  at  Vin 
cennes.  The  Lieutenant  Governor's  policy  had  been 
not  to  directly  encourage  the  savages  to  make  war 
upon  the  inoffensive  settlers  on  the  border  of  Virginia ; 
however,  though  he  deplored  their  marauds,  his  giv 
ing  presents  of  ammunition  and  other  warlike  stores 
to  the  Indians,  helped  them  to  carry  on  their  murder 
ous  visitations. 

Settlement"  —  Magazine  of  American  History,  vol.  XXI, 
p.  394.)  It  was,  however,  some  years  after  the  abandon 
ment  of  the  French  fort  before  Abbott  erected  Fort  Sack- 
ville,  and  the  two  evidently  did  not  occupy  the  same  ground. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        51 

The  policy  inaugurated  by  Captain  Lord  at  the 
Illinois  and  bequeathed  by  him,  upon  his  retiring  from 
that  command  to  Rocheblave,  was  not  to  excite  the 
savages  to  take  up  the  hatchet  against  the  Americans, 
but  to  hold  them  in  the  interest  of  his  Government 
generally.  Rocheblave  continued  to  act  upon  it ;  and 
.thus  it  was  that  no  war-parties  were  sent  out  by  him 
against  the  Kentucky  settlements.  Even  had  he  been 
otherwise  inclined,  he  was  without  supplies  or  funds 
to  procure  them  to  fit  out  Indians  for  war.  To  June, 
1777,  it  had  not  been,  as  we  have  seen,  the  policy  of 
any  one  in  command  in  the  West  to  send  warriors 
against  the  American  border  across  the  Ohio;  and 
the  most  that  Rocheblave  had  done  was,  to  encourage 
a  war  chief  of  the  Kickapoos  on  the  Illinois  river,  in 
the  late  spring  of  the  year  last  mentioned,  to  visit 
Hamilton  at  Detroit.  During  the  residue  of  the  time 
the  Illinois  commander  held  his  office  —  only  a  twelve 
month  —  his  hands  were  completely  tied,  so  that  at 
the  end  he  could  only  aver  that  the  Indians  were  in 
general  well  enough  disposed  toward  the  English,  but 
that  it  was  difficult  to  control  them  with  the  small 
militia  force  at  his  command;  and  that  all  he  could 
do  was  to  destroy  the  impressions  made  by  the  Spanish 
and  by  emissaries  of  the  Americans  upon  their  minds.4' 

As  the  Spaniards  occupied  the  west  side  of  the 
Mississippi  at  St.  Louis  and  St.  Genevieve,  their  prox 
imity  and  evident  leaning  toward  the  Americans  made 
them,  particularly,  objects  of  annoyance  and  alarm  to 
Rocheblave.  The  movement  also  of  Captain  James 
Willing  in  an  armed  boat  down  the  Ohio  from  Pitts 
burgh,  on  his  way  to  attack  the  British  planters  be- 

*  Rocheblave  to  Carleton.  —  Haldimand  MSS.  (See 
Mason's  Early  Chicago  and  Illinois,  p.  417.) 


52        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC. 

low,  on  the  left  side  of  the  Mississippi,  gave  the  Illi 
nois  commandant  much  uneasiness.  He  Continued  to 
keep  the  Governor  of  Canada  well-informed  of  all 
things  which  to  his  mind  seemed  of  interest  or  im 
portance,  down  to  the  fourth  day  of  July,  1778,  when 
his  letter-writing-  suddenly  terminated.  The  "fraudu 
lent  neutrality"  he  declared,  on  that  day,  of  the  Spani 
ards,  was  what  gave  him  still  the  most  concern.  What 
he  denied  above  all  things  was,  that  a  body  of  troops 
should  be  sent  to  the  Illinois ;  as  he  plainly  saw  there 
was  trouble  ahead  —  "a  numerous  band  of  brigands" 
would  establish  "a  chain  of  communication,"  not  easily 
to  be  broken,  between  the  Colonists  and  the  Span 
iards.*  Little  did  he  imagine,  however,  that  almost 
within  sight,  marching  down  upon  him,  not  with  ban 
ners  unfurled  nor  with  drums  beating,  was  a  "band," 
not  of  "brigands"  but  of  patriots,  who  would,  all  too 
soon  for  his  quietude,  fulfill  his  prophecy  to  the  letter. 

*  Id.  (The  entire  letter  is  translated  into  English,  on 
pp.  412-418,  of  the  work  last  cited.)  In  speaking  of  Roche- 
blave's  career,  Mr.  Mason  says  (p.  368)  :  "His  services 
were  especially  valuable  in  regard  to  the  Indians  among  whom 
his  military  experience  and  long  association  with  them  as 
a  French  partisan  gave  him  influence,  and  he  kept  the  tribe1; 
in  his  neighborhood  quiet,  and  the  routes  of  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi  open  for  a  considerable  time  by  personal  efforts 
alone  [the  italicising  is  mine]." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Now  that  Virginia  had  erected  west  of  the  Big 
Sandy  river  and  the  Cumberland  mountains,  the 
county  of  Kentucky,  the  next  step  was  its  organiza 
tion.  This  was  effected  in  the  spring  of  1777  accord 
ing  to  law  and  in  the  same  manner  as  other  counties 
had  been  organized.  A  county  seat  —  Harrodsburg, 
as  it  was  now  generally  called  —  was  established;  jus 
tices  of  the  peace  were  appointed  (who  jointly  con 
stituted  a  county  court),  also  a  sheriff  and  clerk.  A 
county  lieutenant  —  John  Bowman  —  was  commis 
sioned,  but  did  not  reach  Harrodsburg  until  the  sec 
ond  of  September.  Clark  was  commisisoned  major.* 
By  the  fifth  of  March,  he  had  the  militia  enrolled. 
Owing  to  their  small  number  (three  companies:  one 
at  Boonesborough,  under  Captain  Daniel  Boone;  one 
at  Logan's  Fort,  under  Captain  Benjamin  Logan ;  and 
one  at  Harrodsburg  under  Captain  James  Harrod)  no 
lieutenant  colonel  was  appointed  and  no  colonel.  Be- 

*  "In  this  visit  [to  'Harrods  town,'  in  1775],  he  [Clark] 
either  had  a  commission  of  major,  or  \vas  from  his  service 
in  Dunmore's  War  and  prominent  talents,  voluntarily  placed 
at  the  head  of  the  irregular  troops,  then  in  Kentucky.  He 
himself  only  speaks  of  settling  in  the  fall  of  '77,  the  accounts 
of  the  Kentucky  militia  which  would  confirm  the  idea  of  his 
previous  command,  besides  being  known  at  that  time  as 
Major  Clark."  —  Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  37.  It  is  certain, 
however,  that  Clark  had  no  commission  whatever  in  Ken 
tucky  until  that  of  major  was  given  him  in  the  early  part  of 
1777.  It  is  probable  that  his  commission  was  dated  before 
the  tenth  of  March,  as,  on  that  day,  Governor  Henry  speaks 
of  a  field  officer  of  Kentucky  militia  see  Henry's  Patrick 
Henry,  vol.  Ill,  p.  44),  in  such  was  as  to  raise  the  pre 
sumption  one  had  already  been  commissioned. 


54        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC. 

sides  the  three  captains,  there  were  commisisoned  the 
usual  officers  under  them.  Finally,  in  order  that  the 
county  might  be  represented  in  the  Virginia  Legisla 
ture,  two  burgesses  —  John  Dodd  and  Richard  Calla- 
way  —  were  chosen  on  the  nineteenth  of  April.* 
They  set  off  for  Williamsburg  on  the  twenty-third  of 
May.f 

The  first  blow,  in  1777,  of  the  savages  in  the  West, 
fell  upon  the  settlers  of  Kentucky  county ;  but  Clark 
was  wide  awake  and  used  every  exertion  in  his  power 
in  defense  of  the  settlements.  Not  having  the  Dela- 
wares  and  those  Shawanese  who  remained  friendly  to 
the  borders,  to  interpose  a  barrier  between  themselves 
and  the  Indians  already  won  over  to  British  interests, 
as  had  the  frontier  men,  to  a  certain  extent,  upon  the 
upper  waters  of  the  Ohio,  the  inhabitants  quickly  felt 
the  effects  of  Hamilton's  insiduous  "talks,"  even  be 
fore  he  had  delivered  the  war-hatchet  to  his  dusky 
allies.  Governor  Henry  was  not  asleep  to  the  danger 
threatening  the  Kentucky  pioneers.  He  had  reason 
to  believe  that,  with  the  return  of  Spring,  savage 
marauds  across  the  Ohio  would  be  frequent  and  he 
feared,  as  a  consequence  the  few  stations  would  be  en 
tirely  broken  up.  However,  he  would  avert  the  ca 
lamity  if  possible : 

"You  are  to  embody,"  he  wrote  the  County  Lieuten 
ant  of  Montgomery  county  on  the  tenth  of  March, 
"fifty  men  of  your  militia  under  the  usual  officers,  and 
order  them  to  Kentucky.  In  conjunction  with  fifty 
others  from  Botetourt,  they  are  to  protect  and  defend 

*  Clark's  Diary  —  Morehead's  Address,  p.  162. 

fCollins's  Kentucky  (ed.  of  1877),  p.  615.  But  that 
writer  substitutes,  doubtless  inadvertently,  Richmond  for 
Williamsburg. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC.        55 

the  settlers  there  'til  further  orders.  In  case  it  shall 
be  judged  impossible  to  hold  the  country  with  this 
reinforcement  joined  to  the  inhabitants  there,  they  are 
to  escort  all  the  people  with  their  effects  to  the  nearest 
place  of  safety,  and  then  to  disband,  if  no  other  orders 
are  given  by  me  or  by  my  direction. 

'This  detachment  to  Kentucky  must  be  victualed 
there  as  I  understand  provisions  are  plenty  and  cheap. 

"The  great  variety  of  war  in  which  this  State  is 
engaged,  makes  it  impossible  to  spare  such  a  number 
of  men  for  this  expedition  as  I  could  wish ;  and  also 
requires  that  you  raise  the  men  in  the  interior  parts  of 
your  county  least  liable  to  invasion. 

"You  will  give  the  officer  you  send  orders  con 
formable  to  the  above.  If  a  field  officer  of  Kentucky 
should  be  on  the  spot,  he  will  take  the  command;  if 
not,  the  eldest  captain  that  commands  the  reinforce 
ment." 

The  Governor  added :  "There  is  powder,  I  hear 
arrived  at  Kentucky.  Lead  must  be  had  with  you. 
An  order  accompanies  this."* 

To  the  officers  who  would  command  the  force 
marching  to  the  help  of  Kentucky,  the  Virginia  execu 
tive,  on  the  twenty-ninth,  gave  explicit  instructions : 
"The  quantity  of  provisions,"  said  he,  "and  the  num 
ber  of  pack-horses  are  great,  but  the  service  being 
necessary,  it  must  be  done,  though  I  hope  it  may  be 
conducted  on  the  cheapest  terms  circumstances  will 
allow.  I  suppose  the  meat  must  be  had  in  your  parts, 
but  the  flour  had  better  be  obtained  out  at  the  Great 
Island,  or  purchased  and  taken  with  you  and  wagoned 
to  that  place,  where  there  are  a  number  of  public 

*  Henry's  Patrick  Henry,    vol.   Ill,    p.  44. 


56        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

horses  that  may  be  taken  to  carry  it  to  Kentucky. 
Let  the  horses  be  brought  immediately  and  left  at  such 
place  as  Col.  Shelby  directs,  as  they  may  be  wanted 
again  to  visit  the  Cherokees ;  and  without  them  great 
inconvenience  may  arise.  The  officer  commanding 
your  militia  must  pass  his  receipt  for  all  the  public 
property  he  receives. 

"It  is  impossible  to  prescribe  the  time  the  rein 
forcements  are  to  serve  at  Kentucky.  They  must  stay 
as  long  as  the  preservation  of  the  lives  of  the  people 
make  it  absolutely  necessary  and  no  longer.  I  ex 
pect  you  will  employ  proper  persons  to  get  the  pro 
visions  on  the  most  frugal  plan.  Certainly  some  al 
lowance  might  be  made  for  wild  meat,  and  so  some 
abatement  in  the  number  of  pack-horses  and  other 
charges.  I  need  not  tell  you  of  the  necessity  of  fru 
gality,  arising  from  the  great  extent  and  variety  of 
military  operations  that  altogether  bring  on  monstroUvS 
expense  to  the  State.  I  would  send  up  ammunition 
but  have  no  conveyance.  If  the  quantity  necessary 
can  be  had  your  way,  it  shall  be  replaced  from  here 
by  the  first  wagon.  Major  Bledsoe  has  orders  to  de 
liver  the  pack-horses  necessary  out  of  the  public  horses 
near  the  Great  Island.  I  hope  less  than  you  mention 
will  do."* 

Clark's  daily  record  of  events  while  acting  as 
major  of  the  Kentucky  militia  is  full  of  interest. 
These  are  the  incidents  he  notes  from  February  to 
(and  including)  the  nineteenth  of  April  following;  he 
was  then  at  Harrodsburg : 

"February. —  Nothing  remarkable  done. 

*Id.,  p.  53, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        57 

"March  5. —  Militia  of  the  county  [Kentucky]  em 
bodied. 

March  6. —  Thomas  Shores  and  William  Ray  killed 
at  the  Shawanese  Spring  [by  Indians]. 

March  7. —  The  Indians  attempted  to  cut  off  from 
the  fort  [Harrodsburg]  a  small  party  of  our  men.  A 
skirmish  ensued.  We  had  four  men  wounded  and 
some  cattle  killed.  We  killed  and  scalped  one  Indian 
and  wounded  several. 

"March  8. —  Brought  in  corn  from  the  different 
cribs  until  the  i8th  day. 

"March  9. —  Express  sent  to  the  settlement  [i.  e., 
over  the  mountains,  probably  to  -  Williamsburg] . 
Ebenezer  Corn  and  company  arrived  from  Captain 
Linn  on  the  Mississippi. 

"March  18. —  A  small  party  of  Indians  killed  and 
scalped  Hugh  Wilson,  about  half  a  mile  from  the  fort 
[Harrodsburg],  near  night  and  escaped. 

"March  19. —  Archibald  McNeal  died  of  his 
wounds  received  on  the  7th  inst.  [in  the  skirmish  at 
Harrodsburg] . 

"March  28. —  A  large  party  of  Indians  attacked 
the  stragglers  about  the  fort  [Harrodsburg],  killed 
and  scalped  Garret  Pendergrast,  —  killed  or  took 
prisoner  Peter  Flin. 

"April  7. —  Indians  killed  one  man  at  Boonesbor- 
ough,  and  wounded  one. 

"April  8. —  Stoner  arrived  with  news  from  the  set 
tlement  [east  of  the  mountains] . 

"April  1 6. —  Doran  Brown  and  company  arrived 
from  the  Cumberland  river. 


58        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"April  19. —  John  Todd  and  Richard  Callaway 
elected  burgesses.  James  Berry  married  to  widow 
Wilson."* 

While  over  the  mountains  as  a  delegate  to  the  Vir 
ginia  Convention  the  year  previous,  Clark  made  him 
self  well  acquainted  with  the  contents  of  the  letter 
captured  in  1775,  written  by  Connolly  to  Captain  Lord 
at  Kaskaskia.f  The  information  thus  obtained  was 
not  lost  upon  him.  Besides,  it  is  highly  probable  that 
while  he  was  at  Pittsburg,  on  his  return  with  his  com 
panion  Jones  to  Kentucky,  he  had  a  conference  with 
George  Morgan  concerning  the  feasibility  of  attack 
ing  the  British  posts  to  the  northwestward  and  west 
ward;  and  that  Morgan  laid  before  him  his  plan  for 
that  purpose  so  far  as  the  Illinois  towns  were  con 
cerned,  informing  him  also  of  his  endeavors  just  be 
fore  to  obtain  information  of  affairs  there.  It  is  not 
at  all  surprising,  therefore,  that,  while  floating  down 
the  Ohio  with  his  cargo  of  powder,  he  should  have 
"brooded  over  the  conquest  of  the  land  to  the  north  of 
that  river."  J  Nor  is  it  a  matter  of  wonder  that,  in 
Harrodsburg,  in  the  Spring  following,  we  find  him, 
notwithstanding  his  onerous  duties  in  defending  the 
settlements,  pondering  over,  so  far  as  he  understood 
it,  the  true  condition  of  the  British  posts  on  the  fron 
tiers,  which,  "since  the  beginning  of  the  war,"  he  had 
taken  pains  to  make  himself  acquainted  with. 

*  Clarke's  Diary  —  Morehead's  Address,  p.  162.  Com 
pare  Collins's  Kentucky  (ed.  of  1877),  p.  615. 

f  Botta's  istory  of  the  War  of  Independence,  vol.  I, 
p.  250. 

J  Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States  (ed.  of  1885), 
vol.  V,  p.  310.  "While  floating  down  the  Ohio  in  1776, 
being  then  twenty-four  years  of  age,  he  [Clark]  conceived 
the  conquest  of  the  country  beyond  [that  is,  northwest  of] 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        59 

In  his  reflections  upon  the  condition  of  the  various 
British  posts  northwest  of  the  Ohio,  Major  Clark  had 
his  attenion  particularly  called  to  Vincennes.  This 
was  the  nearest  white  settlement  held  by  the  British; 
and  it  was  his  belief  that  numerous  war  parties  were 
there  fitted  out  to  go  against  the  Americans.  This 
erroneous  idea  was  the  result  of  his  knowing  noth 
ing  of  the  state  of  affairs  there,  and  of  his  ignorance 
of  the  temper  of  the  Indians  of  the  Wabash  valley 
generally.  While  many  of  these  savages  expressed 
their  interest  in  the  new  order  of  things,  the  war 
hatchet  sent  by  Hamilton  was  not  accepted  by  any  of 
the  nations  on  that  river  during  the  year  1777. 

Clark  soon  made  up  his  mind  that  the  proximity 
of  the  hostile  nations  of  the  Wabash  valley  (for,  as  we 
have  seen,  he  was  fully  persuaded  of  their  evil  intent 
against  the  Kentucky  settlements)  would  make  any 
undertaking  against  Vincennes  extra  hazardous.  So 
he  banished  all  thought  concerning  that  town  from  his 
mind,  giving  his  attention  now  to  the  Illinois.  Evi 
dently,  from  what  knowledge  he  had  previously  ob 
tained  it  seemed  to  him  that  that  country  might  be 
successfully  invaded  by  the  Americans ;  and  he  would 
know  more  of  the  condition  of  things  there,  if  possi 
ble;  so,  on  the  twentieth  of  April  he  "sent  express 
to  the  Illinois"  (as  he  says  in  his  diary),  two  young 
men  of  the  militia  of  Harrodsburg —  Benjamin  Linn 
and  Samuel  Moore,  who  went  by  canoe  down  the 
Cumberland*  probably  to  avoid  the  Indians.  They 

the  river."  — Hinsdale's  The  Old  Northwest,  p.  153.  But 
it  is  certain  he  laid  no  plans  then  and  there  to  effect  that 
conquest. 

*  Collins's  Kentucky  (ed.  of  1877) ,  p.  615. 


60        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

returned  on  the  twenty-second  of  June,*  giving  Clark 
late  and  valuable  information. f 

The  Major  was  told  by  the  two  "spies,"  that  the 
people  of  the  Illinois  had  but  little  expectation  of  a 
visit  from  Americans,  but  that  things  were  kept  in 
good  order ;  the  militia  trained  that  they  might,  should 
they  be  attacked,  be  prepared,  "that  the  greatest  pains 
were  taken  to  inflame  the  minds  of  the  French  inhab 
itants  against  the  Americans;"  nevertheless,  the  two 
visitors  discovered  traces  of  affection  for  them  in  some 
of  the  inhabitants.  They  also  reported  that  the  In 
dians  in  that  quarter  were  engaged  in  the  war;J  but 
this  declaration  could  not  have  applied  to  such  as  were 
strictly  Illinois  savages :  these  had  not  taken  up  the 
hatchet,  as  already  shown. 

The  situation  at  Kaskaskia  and  throughout  the 
British  Illinois,  it  is  evident,  had  been  intelligently  ob 
served  by  Linn  and  Moore;  but  there  were  several 
items  of  information  communicated  by  them  to  Clark 
which  the  latter  does  not  mention  in  his  Memoir,  but 
which,  nevertheless,  became  subsequently  of  great  im 
portance  to  him.  He  was  told,  of  course,  that  Roche- 
blave  commanded  there ;  that  there  were  "many  pieces 
of  cannon"  in  Fort  Gage,  with  considerable  amount  of 
military  stores,  and  that  the  fort  was  occupied  "by 

*  Clark  makes  these  entries  in  his  Diary  as  to  Linn  and 
Moore :  "April  20.  —  Ben.  Linn  and  Samuel  Moore  went 
express  to  the  Illinois."  .  .  .  . 

"June  22.  —  Ben.  Linn  and  Samuel  Moore  arrived  from 
the  Illinois."  (See  Morehead's  Address,  p.  162.) 

t  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  XIII. 

£  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
118,  119. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        61 

a  very  weak  garrison."*  Now,  the  two  "spies"  also  re 
ported  the  good  intentions  of  Rocheblave's  neighbors 
—  the  Spaniards  —  toward  the  Americans,  which 
Clark  forgot  to  mention  in  his  list,  as  also  that  the 
Illinois  commandant  kept  a  close  watch  upon  the  Mis 
sissippi  below,  and  also  for  some  distance  above  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio.f  But  it  is  certain  that  the  two 
men  did  not  visit  Vincennes  on  their  trip,  either  in 
going  to  Kaskaskia,  or  on  their  return  from  that  post. 
It  is  clear  from  all  the  evidence  extant  that  Clark  be 
came  more  and  more  impressed  as  the  months  wore 
away,  with  the  feasibility  of  attacking  the  Illinois 
towns  —  that  they  might  be  captured  with  a  compar 
atively  small  force  of  Americans :  it  was  an  idea  of 
his ;  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  it  was  "locked  up  in  his 
own  bosom ;"  but  it  was  only  an  idea  —  no  movement 
—  no  effort  —  no  "overt  act"  -  -  was  there,  on  his  part, 
towards  carrying  this  idea  into  execution  while  at 
tending  to  his  duties  as  major  in  the  Kentucky  set 
tlements,  unless,  indeed,  the  sending  of  Linn  and 
Moore  to  the  Illinois.be  considered  such. 

A  Kentucky  writer  makes  this  showing  as  to  Clark 
being  thoroughly  awakened  to  the  necessity  of  con 
quering  the  posts  in  possession  of  the  British  beyond 
the  Ohio: 

"He  [Clark]  had,  as  an  adventurer,  visited  Ken 
tucky  in  1775.  As  her  delegate,  he  hacl  claimed  her 

*  Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  I,  pp.  584,  585.  At  the 
very  time  of  the  departure  of  the  two  "spies"  from  the 
Illinois,  as  we  have  already  seen,  Rocheblave  sent  some  of 
the  cannon  to  Vincennes  —  leaving  Fort  Gage,  June  2  (Roche 
blave  to  Abbott,  June  1,  1777:  Haldimand  MSS. 

f  But,  in  other  parts  of  his  Memoir,  Clark  discloses  the 
fact  that  he  had  been  put  in  possession  of  the  two  last  items  of 
information  mentioned  above. 


62        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

recognition  by  the  authorities  of  the  parent  State  in 
1776  —  through  his  agency  her  institutions  were  es 
tablished.  He  had  returned  to  the  frontier  to  partic 
ipate  in  the  struggles  of  the  feeble  stations  for  exist 
ence.  The  British  government  was  then  in  posses 
sion  of  the  military  posts  of  Detroit,  Vincennes  and 
Kaskaskia,  and  diffused  an  influence  among  the  north 
western  Indian  tribes,  which,  if  properly  directed, 
might  have  operated  most  prejudicially  to  the  Amer 
ican  cause.  With  characteristic  forecast,  Clark  per 
ceived  that,  to  these  sources  of  influence,  were  mainly 
attributed  the  habitually  inflamed  passions  and  unre- 
mitted  depredations  of  those  savages,  and  especially 
the  determined  and  systematic  onsets  which,  through 
out  the  year  1777,  were  made  on  the  frontier  stations. 
The  reduction  of  these  posts  became,  therefore,  in  his 
estimation,  a  cardinal  object  of  his  policy.  He  be 
lieved  that  upon  their  destruction  the  fate  of  the  set 
tlements  depended.  He  had  moreover  become  ap 
prised  that  a  plan  had  been  conceived  by  the  Gov 
ernor  of  Vincennes  to  be  carried  into  execution  on 
the  return  of  Spring,  to  combine  a  large  British  and 
Indian  force  for  offensive  operations  against  Kentucky, 
the  consequences  of  which,  if  successful,  years  of  per 
severing  effort  might  not  retrieve."* 

The  unfairness,  in  this  statement,  of  giving  Clark 
(the  writer  not  once  mentioning  Jones)  all  the  credit 
for  establishing  Kentucky's  institutions,  is  evident. 
As  to  "systematic  onsets"  being  made  in  1777  by  the 
savages  on  ,  the  Kentucky  settlements  —  they  were 
generally  very  far  from  it.  Neither  did  the  reduction 
of  the  British  military  posts  beyond  the  Ohio,  be- 

*  Morehead's  Address,  p.  60. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        63 

come  in  Clark's  estimation,  a  cardinal  object  of  policy, 
nor  did  he  believe  that  upon  their  destruction  de 
pended  the  fate  of  the  settlements.  There  is  no  evi 
dence  of  a  contemporaneous  character  that  Clark  had 
been  apprised  of  a  combined  movement  from  Vin- 
cennes ;  but,  if  he  had  really  been  so  informed,  it  was 
a  false  report. 

Fully  to  make  plain  the  labor  and  'responsibility 
resting  upon  Clark  (finally  shared  by  Colonel  Bow 
man),  it  is  necessary  to  record  the  principal  events 
occurring  during  the  spring  and  summer,  in  the  set 
tlements.  Notwithstanding  the  fort  at  Harrodsburg, 
on  the  thirteenth  of  January,*  had  been  strengthened 
by  the  refugees  from  McClelland's  fort,  it  was  attacked 
(or  working-parties  or  others  near  it  were)  by  hostile 
Shawanese  three  times  during  the  month  of  March; 
also  once  in  April,  once  in  May,  again  in  June,  once 
in  August,  and  still  another  time  in  September.f  But 
none  of  these  assaults  can  be  considered,  in  any  light, 
as  regular  sieges. $  In  the  last,  if  tradition  is  to  be 
realized  upon,  Clark  was  hotly  engaged  with  the  sav 
ages  and  killed  one  of  their  number. § 

Boonsborough,  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  April  was 
attacked  by  a  considerable  number  of  Indians,  but  be 
ing  destitute  of  artillery  and  scaling  ladders,  they 
could  effect  but  little.  Some  of  the  settlers,  however, 
were  killed  and  the  corn  and  cattle  in  the  vicinity  par 
tially  destroyed ;  but  the  savages  met  with  so  spirited 
a  resistance  as  to  compel  them  to  retire  with  precip- 

*  Clark's  Diary  —  Morehead's  Address,   p.   162. 
t  Id.,  pp.  162,  163.     (See  as  to  many  particulars,  Collins's 
Kentucky   (ed.  of  1877),   pp.  610-613.) 
I  See  Appendix,   Note  XIV. 
§  Butler's  Kentucky,   p.  44, 


64        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC. 

itation.  The  Indians  made  their  appearance  again  on 
the  twenty-third  of  May.  Of  this  visit,  Clark  wrote : 
"A  large  party  of  Indians  attacked  Boonesborough 
fort ;  kept  a  warm  fire  until  1 1  o'clock  at  night ;  began 
it  next  morning  and  kept  a  hot  fire  until  midnight,  at 
tempting  several  times  to  burn  the  fort;  three  of  our 
men  were  wounded  —  not  mortally;  the  enemy  suf 
fered  considerably."*  This  nearest  resembles  a  siege 
as  carried  on  by  civilized  armies  of  any  of  the  efforts 
of  the  savages  against  the  stations  during  the  year. 

In  June,  a  small  party  of  Indians  was  pursued 
from  the  fort  to  the  Ohio  river,  and  one  of  their  num 
ber  killed. f 

Logan's  fort  was  assailed  by  Indians  on  the  thir 
tieth  of  May.  They  killed  and  scalped  William 
Hudson  and  wounded  Burr  Harrison  and  John  Ken 
nedy.  Harrison  died  on  the  thirteenth  of  June. 
But  the  fort  was  beset  by  the  savages  only  on  the  day 
first  mentioned. J 

In  attending  to  his  duties  as  major  of  the  Ken 
tucky  militia,  Clark  was  constantly  engaged  until  near 
the  close  of  September,  the  principal  direction  of  af 
fairs  having  devolved  upon  him  until  the  arrival,  on 
the  first  of  August,  at  Boonesborough,  of  County- 
Lieutenant  John  Bowman,  who  finally  reached  Har- 
rodsburg,  as  before  stated  on  the  second  of  September. 

*  Clark's  Diary —  Morehead's   Address     p.    162. 

tCollins's  Kentucky  (ed.  of  1882),  vol.  II,  p.  528. 

J  Clark's  Diary  —  Morehead's  Address,  p.  162.  It  was 
no  siege,  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word,  western  historical 
accounts  to  the  contrary,  notwithstanding.  (See  Appendix 
to  our  narrative,  Notes  XIV  and  XV.)  Some  of  the  dates 
in  Boone's  Narrative  (written  by  Filson)  differ  from  those 
given  in  Clark's  Diary;  but  the  latter  authority  is  the  most 
reliable. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        65 

Towards  the  middle  of  September,  it  began  to  look 
as  if  there  would  soon  be  an  end  to  all  settlements  in 
the  new  Virginia  county.  Savage  incursions,  it  was 
plainly  to  be  seen,  were  on  the  increase.  It  had  al 
ready  become  evident  that  war-parties  of  Indians  were 
being  fitted  out  by  Hamilton  at  Detroit  and  sent 
against  the  Kentucky  stations.  His  proclamation,  of 
the  month  of  June,  mention  of  which  has  previously 
been  made,  was  found  upon  a  borderer  who  had  been 
killed  and  scalped,  placed  there  so  as  to  be  seen  by  the 
settlers  who  might  discover  the  body.* 

"Commencing,"  says  a  Kentucky  author,  "with  the 
date  of  his  (Clark's)  return  from  Virginia  to 
ward  the  close  of  the  year  1776  [with  his  asso 
ciate,  Jones],  he  embodied  in  a  journal  some  hasty 
memoranda  of  the  principal  occurrences  of  the  year 
1777,  and  the  venerable  relic  has  been  kindly  placed 
into  my  hands.  The  information  communicated  by 
it  justifies,  me  in  repeating  that  the  year  1777  was 
one  of  severe  trial  to  the  emigrants.  Scarcely  a 
day  elapsed  without  bringing  with  it  an  attack 
on  some  one  of  the  stations,  or  a  skirmish  with 
the  savages,  or  the  surprise  of  a  hunting  party  —  sel 
dom  unaccompanied  with  loss  of  lives.  Boonesbor- 

*  "During  1777,  the  war  bands  organized  at  Detroit 
were  sent  against  the  country  round  Pittsburg;  while  the 
feeble  forts  in  the  far  western  wilderness  [Kentucky] ,  were 
only  troubled  by  smaller  war  parties  raised  among  the  tribes 
on  their  own  account."  (Roosevelt  —  The  Winning  of  the 
West,  vol.  11,  p.  11.)  But  it  is  certain  that  some  of  Ham 
ilton's  war  parties  of  1777,  went  against  Kentucky  as  well 
as  against  the  Virginia  borderers  farther  up  the  Ohio  and 
the  Pennsylvania  frontier  settlements.  (Compare,  in  this 
connection,  Farmer's  History  of  Detroit  and  Michigan,  p.  249. 

5 


66        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC. 

ough,  Harrodsburg  and  Logan's  fort  —  the  three 
prominent  settlements  —  were  successively  besieged 
with  great  obstinacy.  During  a  period  of  more  than 
six  weeks,  the  Indians  seem  never  for  a  moment  to 
have  abandoned  the  country.  They  hovered  around 
the  stations  —  haunted  the  traces  that  led  to  them  — 
skulked  through  the  forests  —  concealed  themselves  in 
canebrakes  —  always  ready  to  avail  themselves  of 
whatever  advantages  might  occur.  Yet  the  whole  ef 
fective  military  force  of  the  settlers  consisted  at  this 
time  of  about  one  hundred  men :  Boonesborough 
contained  twenty-two ;  Harrodsburg,  sixty-five ;  Lo 
gan's  fort,  fifteen."* 

But  this  account,  strictly  speaking,  is  overdrawn  in 
one  particular :  neither  of  the  stations  mentioned  were, 
as  we  have  before  stated,  besieged ;  although,  as  al 
ready  shown,  they  several  times  suffered  attacks  —  the 
latter  not  being  in  any  sense  sieges  as  carried  on  by 
civilized  armies. 

Additional  conclusions  may  also  be  drawn  from 
Clark's  diary  as  to  his  career  while  in  command  of  the 
Kentucky  militia.  It  does  not  appear  (and  it  is  prob 
ably  not  the  fact)  that  he  engaged  personally  in  many 
of  the  conflicts  with  the  savages ;  his  position  did  not 
require  it ;  besides,  as  he  had  the  general  direction  of 
affairs  so  far  as  the  militia  was  concerned,  in  the  ab 
sence  of  Col.  Bowman,  the  county  lieutenant,  not  yet 
arrived  at  Harrodsburg,  it  would  have  been  out  of 
place  for  him  to  have  constantly  risked  his  life.  His 
activity  was  great,  however,  not  only  in  directing  par 
ties  against  the  savages,  but  as  we  have  before  said 
in  sending  expresses  to  various  parts.  Doubtless  the 

*  Morehead's  Address,  p.  58. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        67 

one  sent  to  Fort  Pitt  was  for  ammunition,  as  it  was 
supposed  by  him  that  a  Virginian  still  commanded 
there,  he  not  knowing  of  the  arrival  of  General  Hand, 
a  Continental  officer.  As  to  one  matter,  tradition  is 
undoubtedly  to  be  relied  upon  —  that  he  enjoyed  the 
full  confidence  of  the  settlers  and  was  highly  esteemed 
for  his  display  o'f  good  judgment  in  the  direction  of 
military  affairs.  By  no  means,  however,  was  he  a 
hero  —  an  idol  —  of  the  borderers,  as  enthusiastic  and 
credulous  writers  concerning  his  efforts  during  the 
year  1777  in  Kentucky,  persistently  declare.  He 
acted  thoughtfully,  discreetly,  gallantly,  but  not  more 
heroically  than  others  who  fought  in  defense  of  the 
settlements.* 

And  now,  caused  by  the  arrival,  on  the  thirteenth 
of  September,  of  a  company  of  forty-eight  militia 
from  the  east  at  Boonesborough,  bringing  intelligence 
that  one  hundred  and  fifty  more  were  on  the  way, 
there  began  to  be  a  return  of  confidence  among  the 
borderers  and  a  feeling  of  greater  security  in  the  set 
tlements,  increased  materially  by  the  appearance  of 
Captain  John  Montgomery  with  thirty-eight  militia  at 
Logan's  fort  on  the  second  of  October,  and  of  Captain 
Charles  G.  Watkins  with  fifty  at  Boonesborough  a 
few  days  thereafter.  Meanwhile,  however,  a  militia 
company  that  had  been  sometime  in  the  settlements 
started  on  their  return  home.f  Thence  forward  to 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  XVI,  of  this  narrative. 

f  Clark's  Diary  —  Morehead's  Address,  p.  163.  "In 
October  Clark,  in  his  Diary,  records  meeting  fifty  men  with 
their  families,  (therefrom  permanent  settlers),  on  their  way 
to  Boon  [Boonesborough] ,  and  thirty-eight  men  on  their  way 
to  Logan's."  (Roosevelt — The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol. 
II,  p.  18n.)  But  that  writer  wholly  misconstrues  Clark's 
entries. 


68        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC. 

the  end  of  the  year  the  appearance  of  savage  war  par 
ties  was  less  frequent,  and  the  few  stations  had 
strengthened. 

Sometime  during  the  summer  Clark  had  determined 
to  leave  the  Kentucky  settlements.  He  had,  as  he  de 
clares,  just  reasons  known  to  few  but  himself  that  oc 
casioned  him  to  resolve  not  to  have  any  farther  com 
mand  whatever,  unless  he  should  find  a  very  great  call 
for  troops  and  his  country  in  danger.  In  that  event,  he 
was  determined  to  give  his  life  rather  than  the  cause 
should  be  lost.  To  carry  out  his  newly-conceived 
plans,  whatever  they  were,  he  would  first  go  to  Wil- 
liamsburg  and  settle  his  accounts  with  the  State  as  an 
officer  of  the  militia  of  Kentucky  county ;  and  he 
would  go  before  winter  set  in.  What  plans  he  had 
formulated  in  his  mind  for  the  future  is  not  known. 
It  is  certain,  however,  that  they  had  no  reference  to 
his  holding  any  military  office.* 

Having  arranged  all  matters  in  which  he  was  in 
terested,  both  of  a  public  and  private  nature,  Clark, 

*  Clark  to  George  Mason,  of  Gunston  Hall,  Virginia, 
from  "Louisville,  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  Nov'r  19,  1779."  See 
Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  (Cincinnati:  Robert  Clark 
&  Co.,  1869),  pp.  21-23.  I  have  not  hesitated  to  follow  this 
letter  (written,  as  it  was,  so  soon  after  the  events  which 
it  describes  and  to  one  to  whom  he  would  most  likely  write 
with  great  care)  with  the  greatest  confidence  in  its  truth 
fulness.  It  contains  but  very  few  errors  and  these  only 
slips  of  the  memory,  or  of  his  pen,  with  here  and  there  slight 
exaggerations  of  facts.  It  is  by  far  the  most  important  of  all 
the  American  documents  extant  bearing  upon  our  narrative. 
It  was  written  by  Clark  when  at  his  best,  and  was  wholly 
unknown  to  early  writers  of  Western  history.  (See  Appendix 
to  our  narrative,  Note  XVII.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        69 

on  the  first  day  of  October,*  set  out  on  horsebackf 
from  Harrodsburg,  on  his  journey  to  Williamsburg  by 
way  of  the  Wilderness  Road,  intending,  after  reaching 
the  settlements,  to  stop  at  his  old  home  to  visit  his  par 
ents  and  go  thence  to  the  Virginia  capital.  He  started 
with  a  company  of  twenty-two  men ;  all  would  have 
been  on  the  way  two  days  previous  but  for  the  fact  of 
their  horses  having  been  lost  in  the  woods.  Clark 
was  leaving  Kentucky  not  intending  to  return,  as  his 
own  statement  clearly  shows :  "After  disengaging 
myself  from  Kentucky,  I  set  out  for  Williamsburg."t 
He  celebrated  the  initiatory  proceedings  of  bidding 
farewell  to  the  West  by  "swapping"  horses.  The 
bold  pioneers  of  the  day  had,  many  of  them,  a  passion 
for  horse-trading,  from  which,  it  seems  from  his  own 
record,  Clark  himself  was  not  exempt. § 

On  the  third  of  October,  there  was  a  large  addition 
to  Clark's  company  —  of  men,  women  and  children 
returning  to  their  former  homes,  discouraged  by  the 
hardships  they  had  encountered  and  particularly  dis 
heartened  because  of  savage  aggressions.  On  the 
Wilderness  Road,  they  made  slow  progress,  averag- 

*  By  a  slip  of  his  memory,  Clark  in  his  letter  to  Mason 
of  Nov.  19,  1779,  gives  the  date  as  "in  August,  1777"  (see 
Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  21) ;  but  he  had  previously 
written  in  his  Diary  the  true  date  (compare  Morehead's 
Address,  p.  163).  And  this  is  repeated  in  his  Memoir  — 
Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859)  ,  p.  119. 

f  Lyman  C.  Draper,  in  Appleton's  Cyclopedia  of  American 
Biography  (art.  "George  Rogers  Clark"),  says  the  journey 
was  made  on  foot.  This  is  a  palpable  error. 

%  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  21. 

§  Clark's  Diary  —  Morehead's  Address,  p.  163.  (See 
Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  XVIII.) 


70        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC. 

ing  from  fifteen  to  twenty  miles  a  day  only.  For 
food,  their  dependence  was  mostly  on  beeves,  which 
were  driven  along  to  be  slaughtered  as  occasion  might 
require.  At  Rockcastle  river,  a  buffalo  was  killed  and 
two  at  Cumberland  ford. 

But  we  will  let  Clark  himself  give  the  particulars 
of  his  journey  to  the  "ford :" 

"Wednesday,  Oct.  I. —  I  start  for  the  settlement  [i. 
e.,  for  Williamsburg]  —  22  men ;  got  to  Logan's  20 
miles. 

"Oct.  2. —  Capttain  [John]  Montgomery  arrived  at 
Logan's  with  38  men,  and  says  that  Capt.  [Charles 
G.]  Watkins  would  be  in,  in  a  day  or  two. 

"Oct.  3. —  Started  on  our  journey;  Capt.  Pawling 
and  company  likewise  —  76  in  all,  besides  women  and 

children,  and  took  beeves  from  Whitley,  of  G  ; 

camped  at  Pettit's,  16  miles. 

"Oct.  4. —  Rain  in  the  morning;  camped  on 
Skagg's  creek,  18  miles. 

"Oct.  5. —  Early  start;  spies  killed  a  buffalo; 
camped  one-half  mile  from  the  Hazle  Patch,  9  miles 
cross  Rockcastle  river ;  20  miles  —  all  safe. 

"Oct.  6. —  Early  start ;  camped  on  Laurel  river  j 
marched  14  miles ;  killed  a  beef. 

"Oct.  7. —  Waited  for  Skaggs ;  —  he  not  coming 
to  us,  we  killed  a  few  deer. 

"Oct.  8. —  Skaggs  came  to  us  and  went  back  for 
his  skins. 

"Oct.  9. —  Lost  our  beeves  ;  marched  three  miles  ; 
crossed  Laurel  river  and  camped  on  the  bank. 

"Oct.  10. —  Early  start ;  camped  on  Richland  creek, 
17  miles,  where  we  met  Capt.  Charles  G.  Watkins  on 
his  march  to  Boone's  with  fifty  men  and  [some] 
families ;  scarce  of  food. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        71 

"Oct.  ii. —  Marched  to  Cumberland  ford,  18  miles; 
killed  two  buffaloes ;  Indians  about  us."* 

But  Clark  was  not  yet  out  of  the  interminable 
woods.  On  the  twelfth  he  makes  this  entry  in  his 
diary :  "Crossed  the  R.  and  C.  mountains  ;  encamped 
in  Powell's  valley,  4  miles  from  the  [Cumberland] 
Gap;  in  the  whole  19  miles.  On  the  thirteenth  he 
writes  :  "Late  start ;  got  to  Martin's,  18  miles. "f 

After  getting  fairly  out  of  the  wilderness,  Clark  no 
longer  traveled  with  the  returning  emigrants,  but  left 
them  on  the  sixteenth.  Alone  he  pursued  his  journey 
until  meeting  "Captain  Campbell,"  with  whom,  for  a 
considerable  distance,  he  kept  company.  He  paid  lit 
tle  regard  to  houses  of  entertainment,  —  "taverns,"  as 
they  were  called;  "hotels"  were  unknown, — but  "put 
up"  at  any  settler's  house  which  might  be  near  when 
night  came  on.  From  Harrodsburg  to  his  father's 
residence  was  six  hundred  and  twenty  miles,  by  the 
route  he  traveled.  He  was  on  the  road  a  month  be 
fore  reaching  the  paternal  roof.  He  had  brought  a 
gun  with  him  but  had  no  use  for  it,  now  that  he  was 
at  his  home ;  so  he  disposed  of  it  for  £  15. 

After  one  day's  stay  with  his  parents,  he  renewed 
his  journey,  reaching  Wililamsburg  on  the  fifth  of 
November.  Upon  his  arrival,  he  "lodged  at  Ander 
son's  and  had  a  confirmation  of  Burgoyne's  sur 
render."  The  next  day  he  bought  a  ticket  in  the  State 
lottery  which  cost  him  three  pounds  sterling.  He 
then  called  upon  the  Auditors  of  State  to  settle  his 
acocunts  as  to  the  Kentucky  militia ;  but,  in  doing  this, 
he  was  detained  from  the  seventh  to  the  eighteenth. 

*  Clark' s  Diary  —  Morehead's  Address,  p.  163. 
flbid. 


72        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC. 

The  cause  of  the  delay  was  this :  When  his  pay  rolls 
were  laid  before  those  officers,  although  they  were 
properly  authenticated,  there  were  scruples  in  the 
minds  of  these  functionaries  as  to  the  issuing  of  war 
rants  for  payments  of  the  militia,  because,  instead  of 
being  on  actual  duty,  they  had  been  "obliged,  for  their 
own  personal  safety,  and  the  security  of  their  wives 
and  children,  to  keep  themselves  in  forts,  and  remain 
on  the  defensive  against  parties  of  Indians  continually 
infesting  that  country,  too  numerous  to  permit  the  in 
habitants  to  return  to  their  plantations."  The  Gov 
ernor  was  appealed  to  decide  the  matter  and  he  at  once 
referred  it  to  the  House  of  Delegates,*  -  -  that  body 
ordering  their  payment,  amounting  to  £  726.^ 

Again  Clark  went  to  his  father's  home,  which  he 
reached  on  the  twenty-second  of  November^  —  to 
make  a  long  visit  during  the -winter,  shall  we  say? 
Thus  to  conclude  would  be  natural  enough,  in  view  of 
his  recent  journey  through  the  almost  interminable 
woods  of  the  West;  but  his  (as  will  presently  be  seen) 
was  the  spirit  of  unrest  —  of  action  —  and  there  were 
plans  revolving  in  his  mind  that  would  necessarily  call 
him  away ;  but  "they  were  known  only  to  a  few." 
That  they  were  not  in  any  way  appertaining  to  public 
affairs  is  all  that  is  now  to  be  learned  of  them. 

*  Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  Ill,  p.  116.  (See  Appen 
dix  to  our  narrative,  Note  XIX.) 

t  Appendix,    Note   XX. 

J  Id.  There  is  no  contemporaneous  evidence  —  no  de 
claration  of  Clark  himself  given  at  the  time  —  that,  in  thus 
returning  to  his  father's  house,  it  was  "to  get  a  glimpse 
of  his  people  before  again  plunging  into  the  wilds,"  on 
some  daring  expedition,  as  a  recent  writer  informs  his 
readers  (see  Roosevelt,  in  The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol. 


CHAPTER  V. 

SCARCELY  two  weeks  had  elapsed  after  Clark's 
leaving  Williamsburg  before  he  returned,  to 
make  arrangements  concerning  some  business 
affairs  wholly  his  own.  "On  my  arrival  in  town,"  he 
says,  "I  found,  to  appearance,  friends  in  many  gentle 
men  of  note,  who  offered  their  influence  to  me  in  case 
I  should  apply  for  any  post.  Many  were  surprised 
that  I  would  not  solicit  for  some  berth.  I  must  con 
fess  that  I  think  myself  often  to  blame  for  not  making 
use  of  influence  for  my  promotion,  but  to  merit  it  first 
is  such  a  fixed  principle  with  me  that  I  never  could, 
and  I  hope  never  shall  ask  for  a  post  of  honor ;  as  I 
think  the  public  ought  to  be  the  best  judge  whether 
a  person  deserves  it  or  not :  if  he  does,  he  will  certainly 
be  rewarded  according  to  the  worth  he  has."* 

That  Clark  was  not  slow  in  learning  the  condition 
of  affairs  concerning  the  war  (so  far  as  those  best  in 
formed  at  the  capital  of  the  State  understood  it)  there 
can  be  no  doubt.  "Finding,"  says  he,  "that  we  were 
in  [an]  alarming  situation,  the  Indians  desperate  on 
one  side,  the  Britains  on  the  other,  immediately  re 
solved  to  encourage  an  expedition  to  the  Illinois."f 

II,  p.  36.)  Such  an  inference  can  only  be  drawn  from 
Clark's  words  written  years  subsequent  to  his  return  to  his 
home  and  which  are  not  entitled  to  any  evidence.  (See  the 
following  chapter.) 

*  Clark    to    Mason  —  Clark's    Campaign    in    the   Illinois, 


f  Ibid.  (See  concerning  Clark's  erroneous  statements 
made  years  subsequent  to  this  as  to  his  purpose  in  leaving 
Kentucky  and  as  to  the  reasons  why  he  made  known  his 
design  against  the  Illinois,  Appendix  to  our  narrative, 
Note  XXI.) 


74        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC. 

The  resolve  of  Clark  to  suggest  the  propriety  of 
an  undertaking  against  the  Illinois  and  to  urge  a 
speedy  movement  looking  to  its  organization,  was  a 
determination  of  momentous  import  should  the  scheme 
meet  with  approval  and  the  undertaking  he  crowned 
with  success.  But  to  make  public  the  plan,  would,  in 
the  judgment  of  the  projector  of  it,  be  almost  certain 
to  defeat  it,  as  word,  doubtless,  would  reach  the  Illinois 
in  time  to  enable  the  making  there  of  a  proper  defense. 
Clark,  therefore,  very  wisely  confided  his  ideas,  only 
"to  a  few  gentlemen"  whom  he  could  trust,  and  they 
communicated  them  to  Governor  Henry.*  "At  first, 
he  [the  Governor]  seemed  to  be  fond  of  it,"  are  the 
words  of  Clark's  Memoir,  "but,  to  detach  a  party  at  so 
great  a  distance  (although  the  service  performed  might 
be  of  great  utility),  appeared  daring  and  hazardous. 
As  nothing  but  secrecy  could  give  success  to  the  enter 
prise,  to  lay  the  matter  before  the  Assembly,  then  sit 
ting,  would  be  dangerous,  as  it  soon  would  be  known 
throughout  the  frontiers ;  and  probably  the  first  pris 
oner  taken  by  the  Indians  would  give  the  alarm,  which 
would  end  in  the  certain  destruction  of  the  party. "f 

One  of  Clark's  suggestions  (according  to  his 
Memoir)  that,  in  case  of  misfortune,  there  could  be 
a  retreat  from  the  Illinois  towns  across  the  Mississippi 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  22.  Three  of  the  Virginia  gentlemen  spoken  to  by  Clark 
were  George  Wythe,  George  Mason,  and  Thomas  Jefferson. 

t  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1359),  p. 
119.  Dillon  has  evidently  given  the  words  a  wrong  punctu 
ation,  which  impairs  Clark's  meaning;  I  have,  therefore, 
changed  the  pointing  somewhat,  as  otherwise,  the  whole 
carries  the  idea  that  the  scheme  was  not,  in  any  manner, 
laid  before  the  Assembly  —  which  is  error,  as  will  hereafter 
be  shown. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        75 

into  the  Spanish  territory,  seemed  to  those  with  whom 
he  consulted  as  removing  one  of  the  principal  objec 
tions  to  the  enterprise.  "After  giving,"  says  Clark, 
in  his  letter  to  Mason,  "the  Council  all  the  intelligence 
I  possibly  could,  I  resolved  to  pursue  my  other  plans. 
But,  being  desired  by  the  Governor  to  stay  some  time 
in  town  [Williamsburg],  I  waited  with  impatience  — 
he,  I  suppose,  believing  that  I  wanted  the  command 
and  being  determined  to  give  it  to  me." 

Clark  had  proposed  the  expedition ;  he  would  be 
glad  to  see  it  set  on  foot ;  but  he  did  not  desire  to  lead 
it :  "it  was  far,"  he  declares,  "from  my  inclination  at 
that  time".* 

It  was  not  long  before  the  enterprise  was  deter 
mined  on,  to  be  put  in  execution  so  soon  as  an  act 
could  be  passed  to  enable  the  Governor  to  order  it. 
Such  a  bill  was  accordingly  introduced  into  the  Legis 
lature,  vague  enough  not  to  arouse  any  suspicion  of  its 
real  import,  and  it  soon  became  a  law,  though  but  few 
of  the  members  knew  of  its  hidden  meaning.  It 
authorized  the  Governor,  with  the  advice  of  the  Privy 
Council,  at  anytime  within  nine  months  after  its  pass 
age,  to  raise  a  number  of  volunteers  not  exceeding  six 
hundred,  to  march  against  and  attack  any  Western 
enemies  —  he  to  appoint  the  proper  officers  and  give 
the  necessary  orders  for  the  expedition. f 

After  some  time  had  elapsed,  Clark  was  summoned 
to  attend  the  Executive  Council.  The  instructions  and 
necessary  papers  were  ready  for  putting  in  the  name 
of  the  person  who  was  to  lead  the  expedition.  Clark 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  23. 

t  Hening's  Virginia  Statutes  at  Large,  vol.  IX,  pp. 
374,  375.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  XXII.) 


76        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

fully  believed  it  'was  expected  by  Governor  Henry  and 
his  advisers,  that  he  would  apply  for  the  position,  but 
he  resolved  not  to  do  so  for  reasons  already  given ;  and 
he  did  not ;  thereupon  he  was  informed  that  he  had 
been  appointed  chief  of  the  proposed  "little  army." 
He  finally  accepted  the  command  after  being  told  it 
was  designed  for  him ;  and,  as  a  consequence,  he  "got 
every  request  granted."*  He  was  commissioned  at 
the  same  time,  a  Lieutenant  Colonel,  that  is,  -of  Vir 
ginia  militia,  not,  however,  being  in  any  way  restricted 
to  Kentucky. f 

It  was  on  the  second  of  January,  1778,  that  final 
action  was  taken  by  the  Governor  and  his  Council  as 
to  the  proposed  expedition :  "Present,  his  Excellency, 
John  Page,  Dudley  Diggs,  John  Blair,  Nathaniel  Har 
rison  and  David  Jameson,  Esquires. 

"The  Governor  informed  the  Council  that  he  had 
had  some  conversation  with  several  gentlemen  who 
were  well  acquainted  with  the  western  frontiers  oi 
Virginia  and  the  situation  of  the  post  at  Kaskaskia 
held  by  the  British  King's  forces,  where  there  are 
many  pieces  of  cannon,  and  military  stores  to  a  con 
siderable  amount ;  and  that  he  was  informed  the  place 
was  at  present  held  by  a  very  weak  garrison,  which 
induced  him  to. believe  that  an  expedition  against  it 
might  be  carried  on  with  success,  but  that  he  wished 
the  advice  of  the  Council  on  the  occasion. 

"Whereupon  they  advised  his  Excellency  to  set  on 
foot  the  expedition  against  Kaskaskia  with  as  little 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  23. 

t  Dr.  Poole,  in  Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History 
of  America,  vol.  VI,  p.  717,  erroneously  declares  that 
"Clark  received  from  Gov.  Henry  the  rank  of  colonel." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       77 

delay  and  as  much  secrecy  as  possible,  and  for  the  pur 
pose  to  issue  his  warrant  upon  the  treasurer  for  twelve 
hundred  pounds  payable  to  Col.  George  Rogers  Clark, 
who  is  willing  to  undertake  the  service,  he  giving  bond 
and  security  faithfully  to  account  for  the  same.  And 
the  Council  further  advised  the  Governor  to  draw  up 
proper  instructions  for  Colonel  Clark."* 

Public  and  private  instructions  were,  on  the  same 
day,  drawn  up :  the  first,  for  Clark  to  show  the  people, 
"written  designedly  for  deception" ;  the  other,  for  the 
guidance  of  the  Colonel.  Those  for  the  public  eye 
notified  Clark  that  he  was  to  proceed,  without  loss  of 
time,  to  enlist  seven  companies  of  men,  officered  in  the 
usual  manner,  to  act  as  militia,  under  his  command. 
They  were  to  proceed  to  Kentucky,  and  there  obey 
such  orders  and  directions  as  he  should  give  them,  "for 
three  months  after  their  arrival  at  that  place;"  but, 
they  were  to  receive  pay  in  case  they  remained  on  duty 
a  longer  time.  The  Colonel  was  empowered  to  raise 
these  men  in  any  county  in  Virginia ;  and  the  County 
Lieutenants,  respectively,  were  "requested  to  give  all 
possible  assistance  in  that  business. "f 

Much  more  at  length,  and  with  considerable  mi 
nuteness,  were  the  private  Instructions  given  Clark. 
He  was  not  only  to  proceed  with  all  convenient  speed 
to  raise  seven  companies  of  soldiers  to  consist  of  fifty 
men  each,  officered  in  the  usual  manner  and  armed  most 
properly  for  the  enterprise^  but,  with  this  force,  he 

*  Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  I,  pp.  584,  585. 

f  Butler's  Kentucky  (ed.  of  1834) ,  p.  394.  Clark's  Cam 
paign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  95.  Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  I, 
p.  588. 

%  Many  writers  (see  particularly,  Mann  Butler  — 
History  of  Kentucky,  pp.  47,  48)  have  erroneously  stated 


78       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


was  to  "attack  the  British  post  at  Kaskaskia,"*  in  the 
Illinois. 

"It  is  conjectured,"  said  the  Governor,  "that  there 
are  many  pieces  of  cannon,  and  military  stores  to  a 
considerable  amount,  at  that  place,  the  taking  and 
preservation  of  which  would  be  a  valuable  acquisition 
to  the  State."  "If  you  are  so  fortunate,  therefore,  as 
to  succeed  in  your  expedition,"  continues  Henry,  "you 
will  take  every  possible  measure  to  secure  the  artillery 
and  stores  and  whatever  may  advantage  the  State." 

To  transport  down  the  Ohio,  the  troops,  provis- 
sions,  and  other  supplies,  Clark  was  to  apply  to  the 
commanding  officer  at  Fort  Pitt,  Pittsburgh,  (General 
Hand),  for  boats.  During  the  whole  "transaction," 
the  Colonel  was  to  take  especial  care  to  keep  "the  true 
destination"  of  his  force  secret.  Its  success,  the  Gov 
ernor  declared,  depended  upon  this.  Clark  was  in 
formed  that  orders  had  been  issued  to  one  who  was  to 
recruit  for  him  and  who  would  soon  be  in  Kentucky, 
to  secure  the  two  men  from  Kaskaskia.  These  were, 
it  is  reasonably  certain,  the  same  men  (Linn  and 
Moore)  who  had  been  sent  by  Clark  some  months 
previous  to  "spy  out"  the  Illinois,  the  information 

that  Clark  was  to  raise  his  force  in  the  Western  counties  of 
Virginia,  that  is,  west  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  "so  as  not  to 
weaken  the  Atlantic  Defense;"  but  there  was  no  restriction 
laid  upon  him  in  this  regard  by  the  Governor,  in  his  private 
instructions;  and,  in  his  public  instructions,  it  is,  as  we 
have  seen,  especially  stated, — "You  are  to  raise  these  men 
in  any  county  in  the  Commonwealth." 

*  Not  "the  British  forts  of  Vincennes  and  Kaskaskia 
[the  italicising  is  mine],"  as  stated  by  Robert  F.  Coleman, 
in  Harper's  Magazine,  vol.  XXII,  p.  789.  And  see,  also, 
E.  A.  Bryan,  in  Magazine  of  American  History,  vol.  XXI, 
p.  399,  for  a  similar  statement. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        79 

brought  back  by  them  having  doubtless  now  been  re 
peated  to  the  Virginia  Executive.  "Similar  conduct," 
added  the  Governor,  "will  be  proper  in  similar  cases. "* 

It  was  earnestly  desired  by  Governor  Henry,  that 
Clark  should  show  humanity  to  such  British  subjects 
and  other  persons  as  might  fall  into  his  hands.  "If 
the  white  inhabitants  at  the  post  and  the  neighbor 
hood,"  said  the  Executive,  "will  give  undoubted  evi 
dence  of  their  attachment  to  this  State  —  for  it  is  cer 
tain  they  live  within  its  limits  —  by  taking  the  test 
[oath]  prescribed  by  law,  and  by  every  other  ways 
and  means  in  their  power, —  let  them  be  treated  as 
fellow  citizens  and  their  persons  and  property  duly 
secured.  Assistance  and  protection  against  all  enemies 
whatever  shall  be  afforded  them,  and  the  Common 
wealth  of  Virginia  is  pledged  to  accomplish  it.  But  if 
these  people  will  not  accede  to  these  reasonable  de 
mands,  they  must  feel  the  miseries  of  war,  under  the 
direction  of  that  humanity  that  has  hitherto  distin 
guished  Americans,  and  which  it  is  expected  you  will 
ever  consider  as  the  rule  of  your  conduct  and  from 
which  you  are  in  no  instance  to  depart." 

Clark  was  further  instructed  that  the  men  he  was 
to  command  were  to  receive  the  pay  and  allowance  of 
militia,  and  to  act  under  the  laws  and  regulations  of 
Virginia  then  in  force  as  to  that  arm  of  the  service.f 
He  was  required  to  inform  the  inhabitants  of  Kaskas- 
kia  that,  in  case  they  acceded  to  the  offers  of  becoming 
citizens  of  the  State,  a  proper  garrison  would  be  main 
tained  among  them  and  every  attention  bestowed  "to 
render  their  commerce  beneficial,  the  fairest  prospects 

*See  Appendix,    Note  XXIII. 

fThis  made  them  defacto,  as  well  as  dejure,  Virginia 
militia. 


80        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC. 

being  opened  to  the  dominions  of  both  France  and 
Spain." 

"It  is  in  contemplation,"  the  Governor  also  said, 
"to  establish  a  post  near  the  mouth  of  Ohio.  Cannon 
will  be  wanted  to  fortify  it.  Part  of  those  at  Kaskas- 
kia  will  be  easily  brought  thither  or  otherwise  secured 
as  circumstances  will  make  necessary." 

It  is  evident  that  the  proposition  to  build  a  fort  at 
the  point  indicated  by  Henry  was  for  the  purpose  and 
desire  of  commanding  both  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Ohio  and  of  making  a  definite  claim  by  Virginia  to 
territory  as  far  west  as  the  river  first  mentioned. 
Theoretically,  at  least,  it  was  a  politic  measure  and 
seems  to  have  been  the  conception  of  the  Virginia 
governor ;  certainly  he  was  the  first  to  make  it  public.* 

The  concluding  words  of  the  private  Instructions 
furnished  Clark  were  these:  "You  are  to  apply  to 
General  Hand  for  powder  and  lead  necessary  for  this 
expedition.  If  he  cannot  supply  it,  the  person  who 
has  that  which  Captain  [William]  Linn  brought  from 
New  Orleans  can.  Lead  was  sent  to  Hampshire  by 
my  orders  and  that  may  be  delivered  you".f 

*  It  was  finally  determined  to  put  the  plan  in  execution ; 
but  whatever  may  have  been  the  reasons  for  the  subsequent 
carrying  out  of  Governor  Henry's  idea  as  to  the  fortification, 
by  Jefferson  as  his  successor,  it  is  clear  that  its  inception  was 
to  further  the  purposes  and  desires  of  Virginia  only,  as  above 
mentioned.  Clark's  idea  as  afterward  expressed  was,  that 
by  the  erection  of  "a  strong  fortification  there  [near  the 
mouth  of  the  Ohio] ,  it  would  immediately  be-  the  mart  and 
key  of  the  Western  country." 

.  fColeman,  in  Harper's  Magazine,  vol.  XXII,  p.  789, 
says  the  officer  at  Fort  Pitt  was  "directed  to  give  him 
[Clark]  every  assistance  in  procuring  stores  and  boats." 
But  Gen.  Hand  (a  Continental  officer)  was  not  "directed" 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        81 

Both  instructions  were  dated  the  second  of  Janu 
ary,  and  both  were  signed  by  Governor  Henry.  In 
those  not  intended  for  the  public  to  see,  there  is  much, 
so  far  as  the  exhibition  of  humanity  is  concerned,  to 
commend  on  part  of  the  Virginia  executive.  His 
words  are  in  striking  contrast,  in  this  regard,  with  the 
cruel  mandate,  already  mentioned,  of  Germain  to  Carle- 
ton  "that  the  most  vigorous  efforts  should  be  made 
and  every  means  employed  that  Providence  has  put 
into  his  Majesty's  hands,  for  crushing  the  rebellion," 
referring,  particularly,  to  the  employment  of  savages 
against  the  frontier  settlements.* 

Verbal  instructions  were  also  given  Clark  which 
would  materially  extend  any  plans  of  conquest  (if 
fortune  favored  him  in  his  attempt  against  Kas-kaskia) 
he  might  be  disposed  to  enter  upon.  "I  was  ordered," 
he  says,  "to  attack  the  Illinois  [and]  in  case  of  success 
to  carry  my  arms  to  any  quarter  I  pleased".f 

to  give  any  assistance;  he  was,  simply,  to  be  applied  to  — 
that  is,  requested  —  to  furnish  "powder  and  lead  necessary 
for  the  expedition." 

*  Both  the  Pulbic  and  Private  Instructions  are  printed 
entire  in  Butler's  Kentucky  (ed.  of  1834),  pp.  394,  395;  in 
Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp.  95-97;  and  in  Henry's 
Patrick  Henry,  vol.  I,  pp.  585,  586  and  588.  In  Monnette's 
History  of  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  vol.  I,  p.  415n, 
the  Private  Instructions  may  also  be  found.  As  given  in 
Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  they  contain  two  or  three 
verbal  mistakes.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note 
XXIV.) 

f  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  23.  But  in  his  Memoir  Clark  carries  the  idea  that  Vin- 
cennes  was  particularly  an  object  of  attack  by  him  —  that 
he  had  thoughts  of  assailing  it  first;  but  this  is  clearly  error, 
another  lapse  in  his  memory.  (See  Appendix,  Note  XXV.) 


82        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

An  instrument  of  writing  was  drawn  up,  signed 
and  delivered  to  Clark,  wherein  three  of  the  gentlemen 
who  were  aiding  the  expedition  (Wythe,  Mason  and 
Jefferson)  promised  to  use  their  influence  to  procure 
from  the  Virginia  Assembly  three  hundred  acres  of 
land  for  each  one  who  enlisted,  in  case  of  the  success 
of  the  expedition.* 

Clark,  now  that  he  was  really  engaged  in  the  enter 
prise,  was  as  determined  to  prosecute  it  with  vigor 
as  he  had  been  before  indifferent  about  the  command. 
"I  had,"  he  subsequently  declared,  "since  the  begin 
ning  of  the  war,  taken  pains  to  make  myself  acquainted 
with  the  true  situation  of  the  British  posts  on  the  fron 
tiers;  and  I  since  find  I  was  not  mistaken  in  my  judg 
ment."  "I  was  ordered,"  he  adds,  "to  attack  the 
Illinois ;  in  case  of  success,  to  carry  my  arms  to  any 
quarter  I  pleased."  This  latitude,  it  seems  was  granted 
him  in  verbal  Instructions  ;  there  was  no  such  authority 
given  him  in  the  written  ones.  "I  was  certain,"  he 
continues,  "that,  with  five  hundred  men,  I  could  take 
the  Illinois ;  and,  by  my  treating  the  inhabitants  as 
fellow  citizens  and  showing  them  that  I  meant  to  pro 
tect  rather  than  treat  them  as  a  conquered  people, 
and  by  my  engaging  the  Indians  to  our  interest,  it 
might  probably  have  so  great  an  effect  on  their  coun 
trymen  at  Detroit  (they  already  disliked  their  master) 
that  it  would  be  an  easy  prey  for  me.  I  should  have 
mentioned  my  design  to  his  Excellency,  but  was  con 
vinced  or  afraid  that  it  might  lessen  his  esteem  for 
me ;  as  it  was  a  general  opinion  that  it  would  take 

*  The  writing  was  dated  January  3d,  1778,  and  signed 
by  George  Wythe,  George  Mason  and  Thomas  Jefferson 
(Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  47).  See  Appendix  (Note  XXVI) 
to  our  narrative, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        83 

several  thousand  [men]  to  approach  that  place.  I  was 
happy  with  the  thoughts  of  a  fair  prospect  of  unde 
ceiving  the  public  respecting  their  formidable  enemies 
on  our  frontiers."*  It  is  evident  that  the  goal  of 
Clark's  ambition  was  Detroit.  He  had,  it  is  true,  the 
welfare  of  the  Kentucky  settlements  at  heart  and  of 
those  along  the  northwestern  border  of  his  State ;  and 
so  had  Governor  Henry:  but,  with  both,  there  was 
something  prompting  them  to  action  besides  what 
might  reasonably  be  expected  concerning  the  effect  on 
the  Indians  in  case  of  the  success  of  the  expedition. 
Clark,  as  his  own  words  show  was  ambitious  as  well 
as  patriotic ;  and  to  capture  Detroit  from  the  British 
would  not  only  end  to  a  great  extent  savage  marauds 
upon-  the  Western  border,  but  would  prove  a  severe 
blow  to  the  English  generally. 

Governor  Henry,  subsequently,  was  explicit  in  giv 
ing  the  principal  cause  actuating  him  in  promoting  the 
enterprise :  "The  executive  power  of  this  State  having 
been  impressed  with  a  strong  apprehension  of  incur 
sions  on  their  frontier  settlements  from  the  savages 
situated  about  the  Illinois,  and  supposing  the  danger 
would  be  greatly  obviated  by  an  enterprise  against  the 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp. 
23,  24.  In  his  Memoir,  Clark  says  that,  finding  from  the 
Governor's  conversation  in  general  to  him  on  the  subject, 
he  did  not  wish  an  implicit  attention  to  his  Instructions 
should  prevent  his  executing  anything  that  would  manifestly 
tend  to  the  good  of  the  public,  he  felt  himself  clothed  with 
all  the  authority  he  desired.  [Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859), 
p.  120.]  The  "general  opinion"  as  to  the  force  necessary  to 
capture  Detroit  was,  beyond  all  question,  a  sound  one. 
Clark,  really,  had  but  little  idea  of  the  strength  of  that 
post;  and  it  was  even  more  formidable  than  Governor  Henry 
was  aware  of. 


84        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC. 

English  forts  and  possessions  in  that  country,  which 
were  well  known  to  inspire  the  savages  with  their 
bloody  purposes  against  us,  sent  a  detachment  of  mili 
tia  ...  commanded  by  Colonel  George  Rogers 
Clark,  on  that  service."*  However,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  savages  of  that  region,  as  already  explained, 
had  not  actually  taken  up  the  hatchet  as  allies  of  Great 
Britain,  although  they  were,  all  of  them,  considered  by 
Clark,  from  the  knowledge  he  had  obtained  from  that 
quarter,  as  being  generally  hostile. f 

Beyond  the  probability  that  success  in  the  proposed 
expedition  would  in  some  measure  put  an  end  to  the 
Indian  war  on  the  western  frontiers  of  Pennsylvania 
and  Virginia,  Clark  did  not  trouble  himself  greatly 
to  look.  It  would  not  be  surprising,  surely,  if  he 
occasionally  indulged  in  reflections  as  to  what  might 
be  "the  remote  bearings  of  such  an  achievement."  But 
Governor  Henry  was  more  outspoken  in  his  anticipa 
tions  should  the  result  be  what  was  hoped  for.  He 

*  Governor  Henry  to  the  Virginia  Delegates  in  Congress, 
Nov.  10,  1778.  See  Butler's  Kentucky  (2d  ed.),  p.  532; 
also  a  Life  of  Patrick  Henry  (American  Statesmen  Series)  , 
by  Moses  Coit  Tyler,  pp.  230,  231.  Consult,  too,  Henry's 
Patrick  Henry,  vol.  II,  p.  16  and  vol.  Ill,  p.  200.  But  the 
Governor  over-estimated  the  influence  exerted  there  to  induce 
savage  aggressions  on  the  frontiers. 

t  In  the  sketch  of  the  Life  of  Clark,  in  Collins's  Ken 
tucky  ,  (ed.  of  1877,  p.  135),  it  is  said:  "On  their  return 
[that  is,  on  the  return  of  the  'spies"  which  Clark  sent  to 
the  Illinois] ,  they  brought  intelligence  of  great  activity  on 
part  of  the  garrisons,  who  omitted  no  opportunity  to  pro 
mote  and  encourage  Indian  depredations  on  the  Kentucky 
frontier."  But  what  they  told  Clark  was,  according  to  the 
latter's  statement,  simply,  "that  the  Indians  in  that  quarter 
were  engaged  in  the  war."  [See  Clark's  Memoir — Dillon's 
Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  159.] 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        85 

having  already  in  contemplation  the  securing  of  a  firm 
foothold  for  Virginia  (if  not  for  the  General  Govern 
ment)  on  the  Misissippi  below  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio, 
as  before  alluded  to,  the  capture  of  Kaskaskia  would 
be  a  valuable  aid  in  completing  the  undertaking.* 

And  here  it  may  be  said  that  far  too  much  stress 
has  heretofore  been  laid  by  writers  of  Western  history 
upon  the  fact  that  Clark  had  given  the  subject  of  the 
British  forts  in  the  West  considerable  thought.  More 
had  evidently  been  given  by  George  Morgan  at  Fort 
Pitt.  And  much  more  information  had  been  obtained 
concerning  them  (Kaskaskia  alone  excepted)  by  the 
General  Government  than  what  had  been  gleaned  by 
the  inquisitive  young  Virginian. 

Governor  Henry  delivered  to  Colonel  Clark,  on  the 
day  they  were  written,  both  the  public  and  private  in 
structions.  Twelve  hundred  pounds,  in  accordance 
with  the  recommendation  of  his  Council,  were  handed 
Clark  by  the  Governor  to  be  used  in  the  enterprise, 
but  the  money  was  in  depreciated  Virginia  currency  ;f 
and  Henry,  also,  authorized  him  to  draw  on  Oliver 

*  Several  writers  of  Western  history,  by  mistaking  the 
date  and  import  of  a  letter  written  by  Jefferson  to  Clark 
(only  a  fragment  of  which  has  been  preserved) ,  conclude  that 
that  statesman  put  himself  early  on  record  as  forseeing  what 
might  be  the  consequences  resulting  from  the  favorable  issue 
of  the  proposed  campaign  —  "the  remote  bearings"  being 
much  plainer  to  his  vision  than  to  Clark's.  This  matter  is 
more  fully  discussed  in  a  subsequent  chapter. 

f  C.  C.  Baldwin's  A  Centennial  Lawsuit,  in  The  Western 
Reserve  and  Northern  Ohio  Historical  Society's  Tract,  No. 
35,  December,  1876;  reprinted  in  the  Magazine  of  Western 
History,  January,  1885,  p.  230.  'The  governor  [Henry] 
.  .  .  gave  the  young  captain  a  small  supply  of  money." 
[The  Old  Northwest  (Hinsdale),  p.  154.]  But  it  is  certain 
Clark  was  not  commissioned  captain. 


86        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC. 

Pollock,  Virginia's  fiscal  agent  in  New  Orleans,  for 
additional  funds  to  aid  him  in  his  undertaking,  at  the 
same  time  writing  Pollock  to  draw  bills  on  France  for 
$65,000.*  The  Colonel  was  given,  likewise,  a  written 
request,  directed  to  General  Hand  at  Fort  Pitt,  ask 
ing  him,  if  he  could,  to  furnish  Clark  with  the  necessary 
quantity  of  powder  and  lead.f 

It  was  on  the  fourth  of  January  that  the  Colonel 
left  Williamsburg,J  going  alone  to  his  point  of  destin 
ation  on  the  frontier.  We  now  see  him,  for  the  first 
time,  in  a  position  to  develop  some  of  the  prominent 
traits  of  his  character.  He  at  once  gave  evidence  of 
those  qualities  of  mind  fitting  him  to  direct  and  lead  a 
military  expedition  made  up  of  men  who  were  all 
sharp-shooters  and  accustomed  to  hardships.  He  knew 
little  or  nothing  of  the  laws  of  war  or  of  military 
tactics.  Two  peculiarities  he,  however,  very  soon 
showed  himself  to  be  possessed  of  in  a  marked  degree : 
celerity  in  movement  and  firmness  in  carrying  out  de 
terminations  once  fixed  upon.  He  made  "as  quick 

*  Compare  Magazine  of  American  History,  vol.  XXII, 
pp.  415,  416  and  Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  I,  pp.  603-605. 

t  In  his  Memoir  Clark  erroneously  states  that  Governor 
Henry  gave  him  "an  order  on  Pittsburg,  for  boats,  ammu 
nition,  etc." 

I  Clark's  Memoir —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  120. 
•In  his  letter  to  Mason,  Clark  incorrectly  gives  the  18th  as  the 
day  of  his  leaving  (Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  24). 
That  he  started  previous  to  the  date  last  mentioned  is  proven 
by  Instructions  delivered  to  David  Rogers  on  the  15th  of 
January  by  Governor  Henry  and  by  a  letter  written  the 
same  day  to  Clark  (Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  I,  pp.  606, 
607;  Butler's  Kentucky,  pp.  102,  103).  Besides,  as  will 
presently  be  seen,  he  could  not  have  accomplished  before 
the  end  of  the  month  what  he  did  had  he  left  Williamsburg 
as  late  as  the  18th. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC.        87 

dispatch  as  possible  to  the  frontiers ;"  that  is,  to  Red 
stone  (now  Brownsville,  Pennsylvania)  on  the  Mo- 
nongahela,  the  rendezvous  agreed  upon,  then  in  Vir 
ginia  as  claimed  by  that  State,  but  subsequently  con 
firmed  to  Pennsylvania;  which  Commonwealth  was 
then  strenously  contending  for  all  that  region;  and, 
by  the  end  of  the  month,  he  had  recruiting-parties 
located  "from  Pittsburgh  to  [North]  Carolina,"  ready 
to  work  under  the  public  instructions  issued  by  the 
Governor.*  For  this  service,  Captain  William  Harod 
and  a  number  of  other  officers  were  appointed. f 
Clark  also  contracted  for  flour  and  other  stores  wanted 
—  except  powder  and  lead. 

Captain  Leonard  Helm  of  Fauquier  county  and 
Captain  Joseph  Bowman  of  Frederick  county,  were  to 
raise  each  a  company  to  be  marched  to  Redstone, 
where  they  were  to  join  Clark  at  a  stipulated  day  in 
February.  The  Colonel  had  advanced  to  Captain 
William  B.  Smith,  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  to 
recruit  four  companies  on  Holston,  which  force  was 
to  meet  him  in  Kentucky. $ 

Now  however,  trouble  arose.  "Many  leading  men 
in  the  frontiers,"  says  the  Colonel,  "had  liked  to  have 

*  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  loc.  cit.  It  was  no 
thought  of  Clark,  in  fixing  at  Redstone  the  point  where  he 
was  to  collect  his  force,  that  he  was  locating  his  head 
quarters  upon  Pennsylvania  territory.  He  still  called  the 
region  now  constituting  Southwestern  Pennsylvania  and  a 
part  of  West  Virginia,  "The  District  of  West  Augusta, 
Virginia,"  —  not  even  recognizing  the  fact  that  his  State 
had  previously  (in  1776)  formed  it  into  the  three  counties 
of  Gohogania,  Monongalia,  and  Ohio.  He  believed  that  Fort 
Pitt  and  Pittsburgh  were  within  Virginia's  jurisdiction. 

t  See  Appendix,  Note  XXVII. 

Jld. 


88         HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

put  an  end  to  the  enterprise,  not  knowing  my  destina 
tion".*  It  was  not  apparent  to  many  that  there  was  a 
great  necessity  for  such  an  undertaking  as  suggested 
in  Clark's  public  Instructions ;  for  these  were  only  the 
four  infant  settlements  down  the  Ohio  (as  they 
understood  it)  to  be  guarded,  while  a  far  greater  num 
ber  upon  its  upper  waters  needed  equal  protection.f 
"I  received  information  from  Captain  Helm,"  are 
likewise  the  words  of  Clark,  "that  several  gentlemen 
took  pains  to  counteract  his  interest  in  recruiting,  as 
no  such  service  was  known  of  by  the  Assembly.  Con 
sequently,  he  had  to  send  to  the  Governor  to  get  his 
conduct  ratified.  I 'found,  also,  opposition  to  our  in 
terest  in  the  Pittsburgh  country.  As  the  whole  [popu 
lation]  was  divided  into  violent  parties  between  the 
Virginians  and  Pennsylvanians  respecting  the  territory, 
the  idea  of  men  being  raised  for  the  State  of  Vir 
ginia  affected  the  vulgar  of  the  one  [that  is,  of  the 
Pennsylvania]  party ;  and  as  my  real  Instructions  were 
kept  concealed  and  only  an  instrument  from  the  Gov 
ernor  written  designedly  for  deception  was  made  pub 
lic  wherein  I  was  authorized  [inferentially]  to  raise 
men  for  the  defence  of  Kentucky,  many  gentlemen  of 
both  parties  conceived  it  to  be  injurious  to  the  public 
interest  to  draw  off  men  at  so  critical  a  moment  for 
the  defence  of  a  few  detached  inhabitants,  who  had 

*  Clark  to  Mason — Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,   p. 
24.     That    is    to    say,    "not    knowing    'his   real'    destination." 

t  Clark's  Public  Instructions,  as  they  knew,  showed 
clearly  that  the  men  when  enlisted  were  to  proceed  to 
Kentucky  and  there  obey  such  orders  and  directions  as  he 
should  give  them  for  three  months  after  their  arrival;  the 
inference  being  that  protection  of  the  Kentucky  settlements 
was  the  object  of  the  expedition. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.         89 

better  be  removed.     These  circumstances  caused  some 
confusion  in  the  recruiting  service".* 

In  view  of  his  public  instructions,  it  was  certainly 
uncharitable  for  the  Colonel  to  declare,  as  he  did 
afterward,  that  "through  a  spirit  of  obstinacy  many 
leading  men  combined  and  did  every  thing  that  lay  in 
their  power  to  stop  those  that  had  enlisted,  and  set  the 
whole  frontiers  in  an  uproar;  even  condescending  to 
harbor  and  protect  those  that  deserted."  f 

The  disgusted  commander  concluded  his  "case"  was 
"desperate."  The  longer  he  remained  the  worse  it 
became.  "I  plainly  saw,"  he  subsequently  wrote,  "that 
my  principal  design  was  baffled.  I  was  resolved  to 
push  to  Kentucky  with  what  men  I  could  gather  in 
West  Augusta."  $ 

•The  Colonel  had  been  joined  by  Captains  Bowman 
and  Helm,  "who  had  each  raised  a  company  for  the 
expedition ;"  but  two-thirds  of  their  men  were  induced 
to  leave  by  "the  undesigned  enemies  to  the  country," 
as  Clark  styles  those  who  opposed  his  expedition. § 
The  officers  only  secured  such  as  had  friends  in  Ken- 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p. 
120.  That  some  Pennsylvanians  enlisted  there  can  be  no 
doubt.  (See  also  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  XXVIII.) 

t  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  24. 

J  Id. ,  p.  25.  Clark  still  adhered  to  the  name  of  "West 
Augusta,"  for  the  region  claimed  by  Virginia,  including  the 
then  recently  erected  counties  of  Yohogania,  Monongalia  and 
Ohio. 

§  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p. 
25.  Bancroft,  in  his  History  of  the  United  States  (ed.  of 
1885),  vol.  V,  p.  310,  says:  "There  [at  Redstone]  .  .  . 
he  [Clark]  was  overtaken  by  Captain  Leonard  Helm  of 
Farquier,  and  by  Captain  Joseph  Bowman  of  Frederic,  each 


90         HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

tucky  or  such  as  were  induced  to  enlist  because  of 
private  interests  or  a  desire  to  see  the  West.* 

On  the  twelfth  of  May,  Clark  embarked  at  Red 
stone  for  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,f  with  about  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty  men,  formed  into  three  companies, 
under  command  of  Captains  Bowman,  Helm  and 
Harrod.J  With  Clark  went  a  number  of  families 
(but  they  accompanied  the  Colonel  much  against  his 
will),  in  all  twenty  —  "following  in  his  train" — who 
contemplated  settling  in  Kentucky. § 

Before  the  departure  of  Clark,  he  had  received 
word  from  Captain  Smith  "on  Holston"  (it  was  on  the 
twenty-ninth  of  March),  informing  him  that  he  in 
tended  to  meet  him  at  the  Falls  with  near  two  hundred 
men.  Another  express  —  one  from  down  the  Ohio — 
gave  him  the  intelligence  that  the  Kentucky  settle- 

with  less  than  half  a  company."  In  this,  the  word  "over 
taken"  conveys  an  impression  (which  is  erroneous)  that 
Clark  was  then  on  the  move. 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p. 
121. 

t  Appendix,  Note  XXIX. 

|Apj)endix   Note  XXX. 

§  Appendix,  Note  XXXI.  Some  writers  have  stated  that 
Clark  floated  down  the  Ohio  in  a  flat-boat,  and  that  in  this 
single  boat  went  all  his  force  and  effects,  including  the 
families'  who  joined  him  at  Redstone.  (See  an  article  in  the 
Louisville  Courier-Journal,  Aug.  2d,  1883,  by  R.  T.  Durrett.) 
Evidently  this  is  error.  That  the  Colonel  had  supplied  him 
self  with,  and  actually  went  down  the  river  in  row-boats 
is  sufficiently  certain.  "You  are,"  says  Gov.  Henry  to  Clark 
in  his  private  instructions,  "to  apply  to  the  commanding 
officer  at  Fort  Pitt  for  boats,  etc."  The  italicising  is'  mine.) 
See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Notes  XXXII  and  XXXVI, 
also  the  two  following  Chapters  (VI  and  VII) ,  as  to  Clark 
having  row-boats. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.         91 

ments  had  gained  considerable  strength  since  he  left 
that  quarter.  Such  news  had  the  effect  to  raise  the 
drooping  spirits  of  the  Colonel ;  as,  with  Smith's  prom 
ised  reinforcements,  he  had  no  doubt  of  being  able  to 
successfully  accomplish  the  object  of  his  undertak 
ing. 

On  his  reaching  Pittsburgh,  Clark  found  in  the 
Fort  Pitt  commander  (General  Hand)  a  warm  friend 
to  the  enterprise.  He  declares  that  the  General  was 
not  only  pleased  with  his  intentions  but  furnished  him 
with  all  the  necessaries  he  wanted.  "Taking  in  my 
stores  at  Pittsburgh  and  Wheeling,"  Clark  subse 
quently  wrote,  "I  proceeded  down  the  river  with  cau 
tion."  But  the  "stores"  at  Wheeling,  taken  in  by  the 
Colonel  upon  his  arrival  there,  were  included  in  the 
supply  furnished  by  General  Hand.* 

Leaving  the  Colonel  afloat  on  the  Ohio  below 
Wheeling  with  his  three  companies  of  recruits  and 
their  officers  —  acting  as  convoy  to  several  families  of 
emigrants,  we  will  turn  our  attention  to  the  Kentucky 
country  whither  they  were  bound  (as  all  supposed  but 
the  commandant),  to  remain,  some  permanently,  but 
the  larger  part  only  for  a  three-months'  service. 

Although  Clark  had  received  encouraging  reports 
from  the  Kentucky  settlements,  indicating  that  he 
might  be  able,  owing  to  the  increase  in  their  popula 
tion,  to  obtain  a  considerable  number  of  recruits  there, 
yet,  the  year  1778  had  really  opened  with  prospects 
not  at  all  cheering  to  them.  On  the  first  day  of  Janu 
ary  Daniel  Boone  went  with  a  party  of  thirty  to  the 
Blue  Licks  on  Licking  river,  to  make  salt  for  several 
different  garrisons  from  which  his  men  had  been 
collected.  That  necessary  commodity  had  always 

*  Appendix,    Note   XXXII. 


92         HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

been  brought  into  the  settlements  at  much  trouble  and 
expense.  On  the  seventh  of  the  following  month, 
having  previously  sent  back  three  of  his  men  with  salt, 
Boone,  while  out  hunting  to  procure  meat  for  his  com 
pany,  met  one  hundred  and  two  Indians,  principally 
Shawanese  (eighty  of  that  nation  and  twenty-two 
Miamis),  led  by  Charles  Beaubien  and  Pierre  Lorimer 
from  the  Miami  town  at  the  head  of  the  Maumee,  the 
white  men  with  their  Miami  Indians  having  gone  first 
to  Piqua  and  Chillicothe  where  they  gathered  the 
Shawanese, —  the  whole  force  being  on  the  march 
against  Boonesborough,  "that  place  being  particularly 
the  object  of  the  enemy." 

Beaubien  and  his  party  pursued  and  took  Boone, 
and  brought  him,  on  the  eighth,  to  the  Licks.  As  they 
approached  the  place,  Boone  realizing  how  impossible 
it  would  be  for  his  twenty-seven  men  to  escape  with 
their  lives  if  attacked,  called  out  to  them,  when  some 
distance  away  but  in  full  view,  informing  them  of 
their  situation  and  ordering  them  not  to  resist  but  to 
surrender  themselves  prisoners ;  with  which  command, 
they  at  once  complied.  Fortunately,  the  two  French 
men  could  not  prevail  upon  the  Indians  to  attempt 
Boonesborough;  which,  doubtless  (so  thought  the  two 
white  men)  might  have  easily  been  taken  "by  means 
of  their  prisoners."  The  savages  were  satisfied  with 
what  they  had  already  accomplished.* 

Boone  and  his  men  were  taken,  first  to  "Old  Chilli 
cothe,  the  principal  Indian  town  on  Little  Miami,"  in 
what  is  now  Greene  county,  Ohio  ;f  thence  they  took 
him  and  ten  of  his  men  to  Detroit,  where  they  arrived 

*  Appendix,    Note  XXXIII. 

f  See,  as  to  this  "Old  Chillicothe,"  the  History  of  the 
Girtys ,  p.  76. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.         93 

on  the  thirtieth  of  March, —  except  four,  who  did  not 
reach  that  post  until  two  days  thereafter.*  The  party 
left  Chillicothe  on  the  tenth. 

Hamilton  received  Boone  kindly  and  proceeded  to 
examine  him  as  to  affairs  in  the  settlements  south  of 
the  Ohio.  His  prisoner  was  very  communicative,  but 
he  exaggerated  matters.  He  told  the  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  that  the  people  had  been  incessantly  harrassed 
by  parties  of  Indians,  which  was  true,  but  he  added, 
they  had  not  been  able  to  sow  grain  and  would  not 
have  a  morsel  of  bread  by  the  middle  of  June,  which 
was  an  exaggeration.  Clothing,  he  said,  was  not  to 
be  had,  and  they  did  not  expect  relief  from  Congress. 
He  thus  unwittingly  inspired  Hamilton  with  confidence 
that  his  barbarous  policy  was  producing  the  desired 
effect,  inducing  him  to  greater  exertion  against  the 
border  settlements  of  the  Americans.  "Their  di- 
lemna,"  he  wrote,  "will  probably  induce  them  to  trust 
to  the  savages,  who  have  shown  so  much  humanity  to 
their  prisoners ;  and  they  will  come  to  this  place  be 
fore  winter." 

Four  of  the  men  taken  at  the  Blue  Licks  were  de 
livered  up  to  Hamilton  by  the  Indians ;  but  Boone, 
although  Hamilton  offered  to  ransom  him,  (proposing 
£100  sterling  as  the  sum),  they  would  not  part  with, 
—  they  "expecting,  by  his  means,  to  effect  some 
thing,"  f  He  supposed  that  the  reason  why  he  was 

*  Hamilton  to  Carleton,  Jan.  26  —  April  25;  1778.  — Haldi- 
mand  MSS. 

t  Id.  "A  Major  [Captain]  Daniel  Boone,  who  com 
manded  Boonesborough,  was  taken  with  twenty-six  men, 
some  distance  from  his  fort,  by  the  Indians,  who  carried 
them  to  Detroit,  without  killing  a  man.  This  gentleman 
expressed  his  gratitude  for  the  good  treatment  received. 


94        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

still  kept  a  prisoner  was  because  the  savages  had 
formed  a  friendship  for  him.  He  did  not  fully  under 
stand  that  Indians  were  adepts  in  the  art  of  dissimu 
lation.  He  was  taken  back  to  "Old  Chillicothe,"  leav 
ing  Detroit  on  the  tenth  of  April,  and  reaching  the 
Shawanese  town  on  the  twenty-fifth,*  "after  a  long 
and  fatiguing  march." 

The  presence,  at  Chillicothe,  in  June,  of  a  large 
number  of  savages  "ready  to  march  against  Boones- 
borough,"  determined  Boone  to  escape,  the  first  op 
portunity.  "On  the  seventeenth,  before  sun-rise,"  he 
says,  "I  departed  in  the  most  secret  manner  and  arrived 
at  Boonesborough  on  the  twentieth,  after  a  journey  of 
one  hundred  and  sixty  miles,  during  which  I  had  but 
one  meal."  f  The  escape  of  Boone,  was  the  cause  it 
seems,  of  the  Indians  postponing  their  march  for  the 
time,  as  they  did  not  make  their  appearance  as  ex 
pected.  The  interval  was  well  improved  by  the  garri 
son  in  strengthening  their  little  fortress.  It  was  a 
wise  precaution,  as  subsequent  events  demonstrated. 

During  all  these  months  —  the  first  half  of  1778 
—  strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  Kentucky  settlements 
were  increasing  their  strength.  Nothing  could  stay 
the  tide  of  emigration  to  that  region.  Cheap  lands, 
an  excellent  soil,  and  a  mild  climate,  were  enough  to 
induce  the  emigrant  to  brave  all  dangers  of  the  toma 
hawk  and  scalping  knife.  And  then  because  of  the 
determination  of  the  Ohio  Indians  to  strike  as  a  rule 
the  borders  in  force,  small  parties  of  savages  had  not, 

with  his  men  while  with  us  [at  Detroit]."  —  Schieffelin : 
Loose  Notes  —  Magazine  of  American  History,  vol.  I,  p. 
192.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  XXXIV.) 

*  Boone's  Narrative ,   before  cited. 

fid. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.         95 

to  so  great  an  extent,  crossed  the  Ohio  since  the  cap 
ture  of  Boone ;  besides,  a  grand  council  at  Detroit 
(hereafter  to  be  noted)  had  engaged  the  attention  of 
many  of  the  Indian  warriors ;  but,  the  principal  reason 
for  the  falling  off  for  the  first  six  months  of  the  year 
of  savage  marauds  was  owing  to  the  fact  that  Hamil 
ton  had  become  rather  tired  of  such  a  desultory  war 
fare  and  longed  as  he  had  already  hinted  to  Carleton, 
to  have  an  opportunity  to  send  his  dusky  allies  upon 
some  important  expedition  in  a  body.  He  was  not  as 
active  as  in  1777  in  his  murderous  work. 

And  there  was  still  another  reason.  The  Indians 
were  finding  a  more  inviting  field  for  their  aggressions 
in  the  Western  Pennsylvania  settlements  and  along  the 
Virginia  border  south  of  them,  as  will  hereafter  be 
shown. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

A  LARK  once  upon  the  "Western  waters"  was,  for 
i  the  first  time,  actually  on  the  move  with  troops 
toward  the  Illinois.  He  left  the  Pittsburgh 
country  "in  great  confusion,  much  distressed  by  the 
Indians"  arriving  at  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha 
(Point  Pleasant)  past  the  middle  of  May,  —  to  the 
great  joy  of  the  garrison  in  Fort  Randolph ;  as  they 
were  weak  and  had  just  before  been  attacked  by  a  large 
body  of  Indians.*  He  was  importuned  by  the  com 
mandant  of  the  post  to  join  him  in  pursuit  of  the  sav 
ages  who  had  gone  against  the  interior  settlements.. 
"The  temptation  of  success  was  great,  but  the  im 
portance  of  his  own  expedition  was  greater ;  and  for 
tunately  for  his  country,  Clark  knew  his  duty  too  well 
and  discharged  it  too  faithfully,  to.be  diverted  from 
his  purpose." 

Before  leaving  Fort  Randolph,  the  Colonel  was 
joined  by  Captain  James  O'Hara's  company  on  its 
way  to  Ozark  (as  the  settlement,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Arkansas,  under  the  rule  of  the  Spanish,  was  then 
called).  This  was  one  of  two  Independent  Virginia 
companies  stationed  on  the  Ohio  —  the  other  being 
that  of  Captain  Henry  Heath. f 

*  See  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  25;  Washington-Irvine  Correspondence,  pp.  18,  19;  Capt. 
Joseph  Bowman  to  Colonel  John  Kite,  July  30,  1778  [Almon's 
Remembrances  (1779),  vol.  VIII,  p.  82].  Clark  says  he 
reached  the  fort  the  day  after  the  attack;  but  Bowman  (in 
this  instance  the  better  authority)  says  the  garrison  had, 
upon  Clark's  arrival,  been  confined  eight  days,  "in  which 
time,  there  had  been  an  attack." 

t  Appendix,   Note  XXXIV, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.         97 

After  spending  a  day  or  two  at  Point  Pleasant, 
Clark  again  started  down  the  Ohio.  He  had  a  very 
pleasant  voyage  to  the  mouth  of  the  Kentucky  where 
he  landed.  His  first  employment  was  to  send  ex 
presses  to  stations  on  that  river  for  Captain  Smith  to 
join  him  immediately  at  the  Falls,  as  he  had  no  doubt 
the  Captain  had  reached  that  stream  and  was  awaiting 
him.  But,  he  soon  learned  that  that  officer  had  not 
arrived ;  that  all  his  men,  except  a  part  of  a  company, 
under  a  Captain  Dillard,  "had  been  stopped  by  the 
incessant  labors  of  the  populace,"  "some  on  the  march 
being  threatened  to  be  put  in  prison  if  they  did  not  re 
turn."  This  information,  the  Colonel  declares,  made 
him  as  desperate  as  he  was  before  determined. 

"Reflecting,"  Clark  says,  "on  the  information  that 
I  had,  of  some  of  my  greatest  opponents  censuring  the 
Governor  for  his  conduct  in  ordering  me,  as  they 
thought,  to  protect  Kentucky  only  —  that,  and  some 
other  secret  impulses  occasioned  me,  in  spite  of  all 
counsel,  to  risk  the  expedition  to  convince  them  of 
their  error,  —  which  expedition  to  that  moment  was 
secret  to  my  principal  officers.  I  was  sensible  of  the 
impression  it  would  have  on  many  to  be  taken  near  a 
thousand  miles  from  the  body  of  their  country  to  at 
tack  a  people  five  times  their  number  and  merciless 
tribes  of  Indians  their  allies,  and  all  determined  ene 
mies  to  us.  I  knew  my  case  was  desperate,  but  the 
more  I  reflected  on  my  weakness,  the  more  I  was 
pleased  with  the  enterprise."*  Clark  thereupon  wrote 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  26.  Clark's  words  I  have  not  followed  closely,  but  I  have 
endeavored  to  give  his  meaning.  His  language  is  vague, 
especially  in  reference  to  disclosing  his  secret  to  his  principal 

7 


98         HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

to  County  Lieutenant  John  Bowman,  at  Harrodsburg, 
informing  him,  in  words  although  vague  yet  calcu 
lated  to  awaken  enthusiasm,  of  his  intention  to  fix  a 
post  at  the  Falls;  and  that,  having  an  object  in  view 
of  the  greatest  importance  to  the  country,  he  desired 
that  officer  to  meet  him  at  that  place,  with  all  the  men 
recruited  by  Smith  that  had  reached  Kentucky,  and, 
with  as  many  others  as  could  be  spared  from  the  in 
terior  stations.* 

It  was  on  the  twenty-seventh  of  May,  on  what  was 
afterward  named  "Corn  Island,"  opposite  the  shore 
where  Louisville  now  stands,  that  Clark  finally  rested, 
— choosing  the  island,  instead  of  the  southern  shore, 
as  a  place  where  he  could  readily  secure  any  of  his  men 
who  would  attempt  to  desert  when  it  should  be  made 
known  to  them  that  the  expedition  was  intended  for 
the  Illinois.  There  was,  at  this  time,  no  settlement  on 
the  main  land,  although  two  thousand  acres,  a  part  of 
the  site  of  he  present  city  of  Louisville,  had,  on  the 
sixteenth  of  December,  1773,  been  patented  by  John 
Connolly.  The  Falls  could  easily  be  reached  from  the 
interior  stations ;  which  fact  probably,  with  the  ad 
vantage  of  the  place  being  a '  considerable  distance 
down  the  Ohio,  directly  on  the  route  to  Kaskaskia, 
had  previously  determined  Clark  to  make  it  his  final 
rendezvous. 

The  men  who  had  been  .embodied  by  County  Lieu 
tenant  Bowman  at  Clark's  request,  including  also  those 

officers;  and  an  erroneous  impression  is  conveyed  when  he 
speaks  of  the  "merciless  tribes  of  Indians"  being  then  "their 
[the  Creoles']  allies"  and  "all  determined  enemies,"  to  the 
Americans. 

*  Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  49.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narra 
tive,  Note  XXXV.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.         99 

brought  in  from  Holston  by  Captain  Dillard,  reached 
Clark  in  due  season;  whereupon,  he  made  known  to 
all  on  the  island  his  detemination  to  march  against 
Kaskaskia.*  It  was,  of  course,  a  great  surprise  to 
those  officers  to  whom  the  secret  had  not  before  been 
revealed,  as  well  as  to  the  rank  and  file.  Eagerly  they 
listened  to  the  Colonel  as  he  read  his  private  instruc 
tions,  also  the  promise  of  Nythe,  Mason  and  Jefferson 
as  to  a  bounty  in  land.  The  commander  soon  found 
that,  so  far  as  the  Kentuckians  were  concerned,  it 
would  not  answer  to  take  many  of  them  with  him, 
owing  to  the  weakness  and  exposed  condition  of  the 
settlements.  He  therefore  engaged  but  twenty ;  and 
even  these  it  was  expected  would  be  replaced  by 
militia  which  would  afterward  reach  the  country  from 
over  the  mountains.  The  residue  afterward  returned 
to  the  various  stations  whence  they  had  marched. 

Clark  now  began,  for  the  first  time,  to  discipline  his 
men,  "knowing  that  to  be  the  most  essential  point  to 
wards  success."  Most  of  them  determined  to  follow 
him;  and  "as  the  rest  saw  (at  first)  no  probability  of 
making  their  escape,"  he  "soon  got  the  desired  subor 
dination."  f 

*  So  well  had  the  secret  been  kept  that  a  prisoner  taken 
from  Kentucky  by  the  Indians  and  examined  by  Hamilton  at 
Detroit  reported  that  the  Kentuckians  had  recccntly  been 
reinforced  by  three  companies.  (See  Hamilton  to  Haldi- 
mand,  Sept.  5,  1778  —  Haldimand  MSS.)  Little  did  the 
Lieutenant  Governor  dream,  when  he  got  this  information, 
who  constituted  the  three  companies  or  that  their  destination 
was  the  Illinois,,  although  he  had  already  learned  the  result 
of  their  expedition. 

t  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  27. 


100       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Now  that  the  Colonel  had  revealed  his  real  destina 
tion,  the  time  for  starting-  was  soon  determined  upon 
and  made  known  to  all  under  his  command  as  well  as 
to  Colonel  Bowman  and  others  from  Harrodsburg, 
who  resolved  to  stay  until  the  expedition  left  the  island. 
The  defection  already  hinted  at  was  mostly  in  Captain 
Dillard's  company.  His  men,  of  course,  had  not  en 
listed  for  any  service  beyond  the  Kentucky  settlements 
—  they  not  being  aware,  as  was  Governor  Henry,  that 
the  Illinois  towns  were  within  the  limits  of  Virginia; 
and  the  greater  portion  of  them  under  Lieutenant  Hut- 
chins,  determined,  as  "they  had  been  refused  leave  to 
return,  to  make  their  escape  at  all  hazards ;  which 
they  effected  before  daylight  in  the  morning  of  the  day 
fixed  upon  for  the  departure  of  the  army  down  the 
Ohio.*  "Luckily,"  says  the  Colonel,  "a  few  of  his 
(the  Lieutenant's)  men  were  taken  the  next  day  by  a 
party  sent  after  them."  f  Those  in  pursuit  were 
mounted  on  "the  horses  of  the  Harrodsburg  gentle 
men,"  overtaking  the  fugitives  about  twenty  miles 
from  the  island,  on  the  trace  to  Harrodsburg.  Not 
less  than  seven  were  captured ;  the  residue  "scattered 
through  the  woods."  Clark  had  given  orders  that  all 
who  resisted  should  be  shot ;  but  none  were  killed. 
The  men  who  were  taken  were  brought  back  to  the 
rendezvous  ;  the  others  "suffered  most  severely  every 
species  of  distress.  The  people  of  Harrodstown  felt 
the  baseness  of  the  Lieutenant's  conduct  so  keenly,  and 

*  Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  50.  Butler  also  says :  "The 
boats  were  .  .  .  ordered  to  be  well  secured  and  sentries 
were  placed  where  it  was  supposed  the  men  might  wade  across 
the  river  to  the  Kentucky  shore." 

t  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  27, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        101 

resented  it  with  such  indignation  that  they  would  not 
for  some  time  let  him  or  his  companions  into  the  fort. 
On  the  return  of  the  detachment  from  the  pursuit,  a 
day  of  rejoicing  was  spent  between  the  troops  about 
to  -descend  the  river  and  those  who  were  to  return  on 
a  service  little  inferior  in  danger  and  privation  —  the 
defence  of  the  interior  stations."* 

The  twenty  Kentuckians  who,  it  was  arranged, 
were  to  go  with  Clark,  were  put  under  command  of 
Captain  John  Montgomery,  the  same  officer  who  had 
the  previous  fall  brought  to  the  settlements  a  company 
of  Virginia  militia  from  Holston.  "In  1777,"  wrote 
Montgomery  several  years  after,  "being  ordered  with 
my  company  from  Holston  to  the  Kentudry  '<  country 
for  its  defense,  I  remained  there  untif  the  year  fol 
lowing,  when  Colonel  Clark  arrived  at 'the 'Falls  b'f  the 
Ohio  with  a  body  of  troops  on  his  way  to  the  Illinois. 
I  joined  him."f  Among  those  under  the  Captain  were 
Edward  Worthington  and  Simon  Kenton.J 

There  was  one  event  of  which  the  Colonel  had 
heard,  that  gave  him  much  satisfaction.  In  a  letter 
written  by  Colonel  John  Campbell  at  Pittsburgh,  and 
brought  down  the  Ohio  by  Captain  William  Linn,  who 
had  overtaken  Clark  before  his  final  rendezvous  had 

*  Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  50.  Butler  says  that  Clark  gen 
erously  withheld  the  name  of  the  lieutenant  who  deserted; 
but  that  author  had  not  seen  the  Colonel's  letter  to  Mason  of 
November  19,  1779,  already  frequently  cited.  (See,  further, 
as  to  the  escape  of  the  men  from  the  island,  Appendix  to  our 
narrative,  Note  XXXVI.) 

f  Montgomery  to  the  Board  of  Commissioners  for  the 
Settlement  of  Western  Accounts,  Feb.  22,  1783.  (Calendar 
of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  Ill,  p.  441);  Mason's  Early 
Chicago  and  Illinois,  p.  352.  . 

%  Appendix/Note  XXXVII. 


102       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

been  reached,  he  was  informed  of  the  acknowledge 
ment  of  the  independence  of  the  United  States  on  the 
sixth  of  the  previous  February,  by,  France,  and  of  the 
conclusion  between  them  of  a  treaty  of  alliance.  "If 
war  should  break  out  between  France  and  Great  Brit 
ain,  were  the  words  of  the  compact,  "during  the  con 
tinuance  of  the  present  war  between  the  United  States 
and  England,  his  Majesty  (the  King  of  France) 
shall  make  it  a  common  cause,  and  (France  and  the 
United  States  shall)  aid  each  other  mutually  with 
their  good  offices,  their  counsels,  and  their  forces,  ac 
cording  to  the  exigencies  of  conjunctures,  as  becomes 
good  and  faithful  allies."  Clark,  of  course,  was  not 
slow  to  perceive  what  use  could  be  made  of  the  in- 
,  formation  in  the  event  of  his  success  against  Kaskas- 
kia."  Linn  joined  Clark's  force  as  a  volunteer.* 

Before  leaving  the  island,  Clark  erected  thereon  "a 
block  house"  (as  he  terms  it,  but  which  in  reality 
would  not  strictly  answer  the  description),  in  which 
to  deposit  such  stores  as  were  not  to  be  taken  along. 
The  Colonel  says  it  was  to  secure  his  provisions  ;f 
but,  at  the  same  time,  it  would  serve  to  protect  from 
the  Indians  those  left  in  charge  of  them.  It  is  evident 
that,  had  he  intended  to  take  with  him  all  stores  he 
had  brought  down  the  Ohio,  no  structure  of  any  kind 
would  have  made  its  appearance.  It  was  no  part  of 
the  Colonel's  plan  to  stop  on  his  way  to  Kaskaskia 
for  the  purpose  of  establishing  a  military  post  for  the 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p. 
122;  Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  50;  Hall's  Romance  of  Western 
History,  p.  109.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note 
XXXVIII.) 

t  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  27. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        103 

protection  of  the  Kentucky  settlements  at  any  point, 
or  of  the  prospective  river  trade  on  the  Ohio.  Nor 
was  it  his  idea  that,  on  the  presumption  of  being  suc 
cessful  in  his  expedition  it  would  be  prudent  to  put  up, 
on  the  island,  a  defensive  work  for  the  convenience  of 
communication  between  the  Illinois  towns  and  the  Ken 
tucky  settlements,  as  one  of  his  officers  afterward 
erroneously  stated,  in  substance.*  Clark  did  not 
choose  the  Falls  for  his  stopping  place,  or  the  island 
for  a  "station,"  because  of  any  other  considerations 
than  such  as  had  reference  to  his  expedition  in  going 
and  coming,  whatever  may  have,  afterwards,  induced 
his  efforts  towards  making  a  permanent  lodgment 
there.  His  words  to  Colonel  Bowman  of  his  intention 
to  fix  a  post  at  the  Falls  were  (if  not  intended  to  apply 
to  what,  in  the  future,  he  might  accomplish)  only  to 
secure  prompt  and  efficient  action  from  that  officer. f 
Having  got  everything  in  readiness,  the  Colonel 
with  "about  one  hundred  and  eighty"  officers  and 
men,  mostly  Virginians  and  all  in  the  Virginia  ser 
vice,  consisting  of  four  companies,  under  the  com 
mand  of  Captains  Helm,  Bowman,  Harrod  and  Mont 
gomery,  set  off  for  KaskaskiaJ  (intending  to  drop 
down  the  Ohio  to  the  deserted  Fort  Massac  on  the 
north  side  of  the  river,  and  march  thence  by  land), 
leaving  not  less  than  ten  families  of  the  twenty  who 
had  accompanied  him  from  Redstone  (the  residue 

*  Col.  John  Montgomery  to  "B'd  of  Com'r  for  Settlement 
of  Western  Accts,"  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  p. 
441.  (See  also  Mason's  Early  Chicago  and  Illinois,  p.  352.) 
Montgomery's  declaration  was  evidently  an  afterthought. 

t  Appendix,   Note  XXXIX. 

I  See,  further,  as  to  Clark's  force  leaving  the  island, 
Appendix,  Note  XL. 


104       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

having  gone  into  the  Kentucky  settlements),  on  the 
island  also  seven  soldiers  " judged  not  competent  to 
the  expected  fatigue."  The  whole  were  to  guard  the 
military  stores  not  taken  along  by  the  Colonel.* 

"As  I  knew,"  are  the  subsequent  words  of  Clark, 
"that  spies  were  kept  on  the  river  below  the  towns  of 
the  Illinois,  I  had  resolved  to  march  part  of  the  way 
by  land,  and  of  course  left  the  whole  of  our  baggage, 
except  as  much  as  would  equip  us  in  the  Indian  mode ;" 
that  is,  each  one  would  carry  only  his  rifle  and  a  sup 
ply  of  ammunition,  together  with  a  knife  and  hatchet 
(tomahawk),  and  provisions  deemed  sufficient  for  the 
march,  f 

The  start  was  made  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  June 
—  a  month  and  two  days  after  the  arrival  at  the  ren 
dezvous.  "We  left,"  says  Clark,  "our  little  island  and 
ran  about  a  mile  up  the  river  in  order  to  gain  the 
main  channel,  and  shot  the  falls  at  the  very  moment 
of  the  sun  being  in  a  great  eclipse. "J  With  oars 

*  See  Appendix,    Note   XLI. 

t  Clark's  Memoir  in  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p. 
121.  It  must  not  be  supposed  from  Clark's  language  that 
he  and  his  men  were  to  dress  themselves  as  Indians ;  that 
is,  as  the  savages  do  before  going  on  the  war  path.  Butler, 
however,  followed  the  Memoir  closely:  "All  the  baggage 
beyond  what  was  necessary  to  equip  the  party  in  the  barest 
Indian  manner,  was  left  behind,  as  the  commander  had 
determined,  in  order  to  mask  his  operations,  to  march  to 
Kaskaskia  by  land  from  the  nearest  point  on  the  Ohio." 
{History  of  Kentucky,  p.  50.) 

t  Clark's  Memoir,  in  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859), 
p.  121.  This  is  another  instance  where  his  Memoir  corrects 
the  Colonel's  letter  to  Mason.  In  the  latter,  he  gives  the 
date  of  his  departure  as  June  26th  (Clark's  Campaign  in  the 
Illinois,  p.  28) ;  but  the  eclipse  was  on  the  24th.  The  cor 
rection  is  first  to  be  found  in  Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  50. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       105 

double-manned,  the  Colonel  proceeded  day  and  night 
until,  on  the  twenty-eighth,  he  ran  into  the  mouth  of 
the  Tennessee  river.  Here  he  landed  on  an  island  to 
prepare  for  the  march  by  land  to  Kaskaskia.  Clark 
had  no  one  with  him,  it  seems,  who  had  previously 
gone  over  the  proposed  route,  but  it  was  understood 
to  be  a  four-days'  journey.  Provisions  were  there 
fore,  to  be  prepared  for  that  length  of  time. 

A  few  hours  after  landing,  the  men  took  a  boat 
of  hunters  but  eight  days  from  Kaskaskia.  Before  the 
Colonel  would  suffer  them  to  answer  any  person  a 
question,  he  asked  them  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
which  they  did,  and  he  then  examined  them  particu 
larly.  They  were  English  —  not  French  —  and  ap 
peared  to  be  in  the  American  interest.  Their  intelli 
gence  was  not  favorable.  They  asked  leave  to  go  upon 
the  expedition,  which  Clark  granted  them.  The  Col 
onel  then  ordered  them  what  to  relate  to  his  men,  on 
pain  of  suffering  if  they  deviated  from  his  instructions. 
They  carried  but  Clark's  orders,  in  this  regard,  to  the 
letter,  which  put  his  soldiers  in  the  greatest  spirits; 
sure,  by  what  they  heard,  of  success.  In  the  evening, 
Clark  ran  his  boats  into  a  small  creek  on  the  north 
side  of  the  Ohio,  "about  one  mile  above  old  Fort 
Massac."* 

It  was  a  total  eclipse.  Hinsdale  (The  Old  Northwest,  p.  154) 
fails  to  correct  Clark's  date  —  June  26th.  (See  further  as  to 
Clark's  leaving  the  island,  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note 
XLII;  and  as  to  the  erroneous  assertion  to  be  found  in 
his  Memoir,  that  he  had  thoughts  of  attacking  Vincennes 
before  going  against  Kaskaskia,  see  Note  XLIII.) 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  28;  not  "at"  Tort  Massac,"  as  Lyman  C.  Draper  asserts, 
in  Appleton's  Cyclopedia  of  American  Biography,  art. 


106       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Years  after,  thus  wrote  Clark:  "As  I  intended  to 
leave  the  Ohio  at  Fort  Massac,  three  leagues  below  the 
Tennessee,  I  landed  on  a  small  island  in  the  mouth  of 
that  river,  in  order  to  prepare  for  the  march  [by  land]. 
In  a  few  hours  after,  one  John  [McEl]  Duff  and  a 
party  of  hunters  coming  down  the  river,  were  brought 
to,  by  our  boats.  They  were  men  formerly  from  the 
States  and  assured  us  of  their  happiness  in  the  ad 
venture.  .  .  .  They  had  been  but  lately  from 
Kaskaskia,  and  were  able  to  give  us  all  the  intelligence 
we  wished.  They  said  that  [Lieutenant]  Governor 
Abbott  had  lately  left  Vincennes  and  gone  to  Detroit 
on  some  business  of  importance; — that  Mr.  Roche- 
blave  commanded  at  Kaskaskia ;  .  .  that  the  militia  was 
kept  in  good  order  and  spies  [were  kept]  on  the  Mis 
sissippi  ;  .  .  .  that  all  hunters,  both  Indians  and  others 
were  ordered  to  keep  a  good  look-out  for  the  rebels ; 
and  that  the  fort  [at  Kaskaskia]  was  kept  in  good 
order  as  an  asylum;  .  .  .  But  they  believed  the 
whole  to  proceed  more  from  the  fondness  of  parade 
than  the  expectation  of  a  visit  [from  the  Americans]  ; 
that  if  they  received  timely  notice  of  us,  they  would 
collect  and  give  us  a  warm  reception,  as  they  were 
taught  to  harbor  a  most  horrid  idea  of  the  barbarity 
of  the  rebels,  especially  the  Virginians ;  but  that  if  we 
could  surprise  the  place,  which  they  were  in  hopes  we 
might,  they  made  no  doubt  of  our  being  able  to  do  as 
we  pleased ;  that  they  hoped  to  be  received  as  partak 
ers  in  the  enterprise,  and  wished  us  to  put  full  confi 
dence  in  them  and  they  would  assist  the  guides  in 
conducting  the  party.  This  was  agreed  to,  and  they 
proved  valuable  men. 

"George  Rogers  Clark."     "Massac"  is  a  corruption  of  "Mas- 
siac,"  the  name  of  the  first  French  commander  of  the  post. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       107 

"The  acquisition  to  us  was  great,  as  I  had  no  in 
telligence  from  these  posts  since  the  spies  [returned, 
whom]  I  sent  twelve  months  past.  But  no  part  of 
their  information  pleased  me  more  than  that  of  the  in 
habitants  viewing  us  as  more  savage  than  their  neigh 
bors,  the  Indians.  I  was  determined  to  improve  upon 
this,  if  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  get  them  into  my 
possession ;  as  I  conceived  the  greater  the  shock  I 
could  give  them  at  first,  the  more  sensibly  would  they 
feel  my  lenity,  and  become  more  valuable  friends. 
This  I  conceived  to  be  agreeable  to  human  nature,  as 
I  had  observed  it  in  many  instances. 

"Having  everything  prepared,  we  moved  down  to 
a  little  gully  a  small  distance  above  [Fort]  Massac,  in 
which  we  concealed  our  boats."  .  .  * 

*  Clark's  Memoir — Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
122,  123.  "Thence  [that  is,  from  the  island],  we  continued 
down  the  Ohio,  moving  day  and  night  .  .  .  till  within 
sixty  miles  of  the  mouth  [when]  we  ran  our  boats  up  a 
small  creek  to  hide  them,  not  having  men  enough  to  leave 
a  sufficient  guard  [to  watch  them]."  —  Bowman  to  Hite, 
July  30,  1778.  (See  further  as  to  the  hunters  "brought  to" 
by  Clark,  also  as  to  Fort  Massac,  — Appendix  to  our  narra 
tive,  Note  XLIV.) 


CHAPTER  VIL 

and  his  companions-in-arms,  after  repos- 
l  ing  themselves  upon  the  soil  of  what  is  now 

the  State  of  Illinois  for  the  night,  commenced 
their  march  by  land  toward  Kaskaskia,  on  the  morn 
ing  of  the  twenty-ninth  of  June,  having  a  distance  to 
travel  northwestward  of  about  one  hundred  and  forty 
miles.  The  Colonel  declares  he  had  a  very  fatigueing 
journey  for  about  fifty  miles,  when  he  reached  "those 
level  plains  that  are  frequent  throughout  this  extensive 
country."  His  route  had  thus  far  been  "through  a 
low,  flat  region,  intersected  by  numerous  streams  and 
ponds,  and  entirely  covered  with  a  most  luxuriant 
vegetation."  All  were  on  foot.  They  had  no  imple 
ments  of  warfare  save  their  guns  and  their  knives  and 
hatchets :  no  horses,  no  tents  or  other  camp  equipage. 
Clark  marched  thoughtfully  on,  "at  the  head  of  his 
gallant  and  determined  band,  with  his  rifle  on  his 
shoulder  and  his  provision  up  on  his  back."  "As  I  knew 
my  success  depended  on  secrecy,  I  was  much  afraid," 
he  declared,  "of  being  discovered  in  these  meadows, 
as  we  might  be  seen,  in  many  places,  for  several  miles." 
The  weather  was  favorable  but  water  in  some  parts 
was  scarce,  and  the  men  at  times  suffered  from  thirst.'* 
On  the  third  day  of  the  march,  John  Saunders, 
principal  guide  to  the  expedition,  got  lost,  —  "not 
being  able,"  says  the  Colonel,  "as  we  judged  by  his 
confusion,  of  giving  a  just  account  of  himself."  It 
put  the  whole  force  in  the  greatest  confusion.  "1 
never  in  my  life,"  is  the  emphatic  declaration  of 
Clark,  "felt  such  a  flow  of  rage,  —  to  be  wandering  in 

-Appendix,   Note  XLV. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       109 

a  country  where  every  nation  of  Indians  could  raise 
three  or  four  times  our  number,  and  [to  suffer]  a  cer 
tain  loss  of  our  enterprise  by  the  enemy  getting  timely 
notice  [of  our  approach].  I  could  not  bear  the 
thoughts  of  returning.  In  short,  every  idea  of  the 
sort  put  me  in  such  a  passion  that  I  did  not  master 
it  for  some  time.  Soon,  however,  our  circumstances 
had  a  better  appearance,  for  I  had  determined  to  put 
the  guide  to  death  if  he  did  not  find  his  way  thai 
evening.  I  told  him  his  doom.  The  poor  fellow 
scared  almost  out  of  his  wits,  begged  that  I  would  stay 
a  while  where  I  was  and  suffer  him  to  go  and  make 
some  discovery  of  a  [hunter's]  road  that  could  not  be 
far  from  us ;  which  I  would  not  suffer  for  fear  of  not 
seeing  him  again,  but  ordered  him  to  lead  on  the  party ; 
that  his  fate  depended  on  his  success.  After  some 
little  pause,  he  begged  that  I  would  not  be  hard  with 
him,  that  he  could  find  the  path  that  evening."  The 
bewildered  Saunders  then  took  his  course,  and  in  two 
hours  got  within  his  knowledge.* 

On  the  fourth  of  July,  in  the  evening,  the  Colonel 
and  his  men  got  within  three  miles,  of  Kaskaskia,  — 
having  marched  the  last  two  days  "without  any  sus 
tenance."  f  They  now  halted  until  dark,  out  of  sight 
of  the  town,  at  the  same  time  sending  spies  ahead. 
The  Kaskaskia  river  was  to  be  crossed  before  the  tewn 
could  be  reached  and  Fort  Gage  assailed. J  "In  our 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
pp.  29,  30.  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859, 
p.  124.  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  XLVI. 

t  Bowman  to  Hite.  Compare  Marshall's  Kentucky,  vol. 
I,  p.  67.  See  also  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  XLVII. 

%  Bowman  to  Hite.  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign 
in  the  Illinois,  p.  30.  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana 


110       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


hungry  condition,"  says  Captain  Bowman,  "we  unani 
mously  determined  to  take  the  town  or  die  in  the 
attempt."  *  "After  making  ourselves  ready  for  any 
thing  that  might  happen,"  are  the  words  of  Clark, 
"we  marched  after  night  to  a  farm  that  was  on  the 
same  [east]  side  of  the  river,  about  a  mile  above  the 
town,  took  the  family  prisoners  and  found  plenty  of 
boats  to  cross  in."  f  The  commander  was  informed 
that  the  people  of  Kaskaskia  had  had  some  suspicion  of 
being  attacked  and  had  made  some  preparations,  keep 
ing  out  spies.  However,  as  no  discoveries  had  been 
made,  they  "had  got  off  their  guard."  This  suffi 
ciently  disproves  a  tradition  "that  a  hunter  has  dis 
covered  the  American  troops,  and  apprised  the  inhabi 
tants  of  the  place  of  their  approach,  but  that  his  story 
was  considered  so  improbable  as  to  obtain  no  credit." 
It  was  the  time  of  year  for  more  than  the  usual  number 
of  men  of  the  Creole  population  to  be  at  their  homes  in 
the  village,  and  many  were  present  ;J  so,  too,  there 
seems  to  have  been  a  considerable  number  of  Indians 

(ed.  of  1859),  p.  124.  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note 
XLVIII. 

*  From  his  letter  to  Kite,  just  cited. 

t  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  30.  It  is  a  tradition  that  the  family  home  was  a  ferry- 
hous^e  and  that  the  farmer  was  also  keeper  of  a  ferry  across 
the  Kaskaskia  river.  But  this  tradition  (which  has  fre 
quently  been  printed)  needs  evidence  to  support  it.  I  have 
never  met  with  any  mention  in  contemporaneous  accounts, 
of  a  ferry  on  that  stream  at  that  date.  The  words  of  Clark 
imply  there  was  none ;  —  he  "found  plenty  of  boats  to  cross 
in;"  —  evidently  there  was  no  crossing  on  a  ferry. 

I  This  fact  is  brought  out  in  Clark's  Memoir  in  these 
words,  "that  at  that  time  there  was  a  great  number  of  men 
in  town"  (see  Dillon's  Indiana,  ed.  of  1859,  p.  124,  and 
Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  52.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       Ill 

in  the  town  a  short  time  before  the  Colonel's  approach, 
but  now  they  had,  most  of  them  left,  and  all  was 
quiet.  In  two  hours'  time,  the  Kaskaskia  was  crosesd 
in  the  greatest  silence,  and  final  orders  were  given  as 
to  the  attack. 

"I  immediately  divided  my  little  army  into  two 
divisions,"  are  the  words  of  the  Colonel,  "ordered  one 
to  surround  the  town,  with  the  other  I  broke  into  the 
fort,  and  secured  the  Governor,  Mr.  Rocheblave,"  * 
who,  at  the  time,  had  no  suspicions  of  the  immediate 
presence  of  a  force  from  Virginia,  nor  indeed '  from 
any  other  quarter.  Fort  Gage  had  no  garrison  to 
speak  of,  not  even  of  local  militia  —  a  sentry  or  two 
was  all. 

The  "Governor,  Mr.  Rocheblave,"  was,  it  seems, 
when  Clark  and  his  division  "broke  into  the  fort," 
asleep  in  bed.  But  he  was  quickly  aroused  by  the  un 
usual  noise.  He  sprang  up,  and,  half-dressed,  rushed 
to  the  door  of  his  quarters  to  inquire  into  the  disturb 
ance.  He  was  met  by  the  Colonel  who  informed  him 
he  was  a  prisoner  to  the  Americans.  The  "Governor" 
at  once  yielded  to  a  "rebel"  force  under  command  of 
"Mr.  Clark"  —  a  "self-styled  Colonel,"  as  he  subse 
quently  called  the  American  commander;  and  the 
"Commandant  of  all  the  English  part  of  the  Illinois" 
was  no  longer  in  power.  —  Hard  fate !  During  the 
day,  his  ever-watchful  eyes  had  been  upon  the  Ohio 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  31.  Here,  again,  Clark's  letter  just  cited  differs  from 
his  Memoir.  In  the  latter,  he  says  he  divided  his  army 
into  three  divisions:  "with  one  of  the  divisions,  I  marched 
to  the  fort,  and  ordered  the  other  two  into  different  quarters 
of  the  town."  — Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859)  p.  124.  I 
have  followed  his  letter  to  Mason. 


112       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


—  the  "Beautiful  River"  -  —  but  he  discovered  no  im 
mediate  danger  in  that  direction.,  He  had  seen,  in  his 
imagination,  bateaux  following  each  other  upon  that 
stream  in  quick  succession  from  Fort  Pitt,  loaded  with 
provisions  destined  for -New  Orleans — that  was  all. 
Although  "a  numerous  band  of  brigands"  might  soon 
attack  him,  yet  they  were  not  to  come  from  Virginia.* 
He  had  never  heard  of  one  George  Rogers  Clark.  He 
knew  George  Morgan  and  he  had  heard  of  William 
Linn;  but  the  former  had  gone  to  Philadelphia  from 
Pittsburgh  according  to  his  latest  information;  and 
as  to  the  last  named  —  he  knew  nothing  of  his  where 
abouts.  But  Linn  was  not  so  ignorant  of  Rocheblave. T 
"The  commanding  officer,  Philip  Rocheblave,"  says 
Captain  Bowman,  "we  made  prisoner."  The  Captain 
also  says  they  secured  "all  his  instructions  which  he 
had  received  from  time  to  time  from  the  several  Gov 
ernors  at  Detroit,  Quebec  and  Michilimackinac,  to  set 

*  "On  this  very  day,"  says  a  recent  writer,  "Rocheblave, 
the  commander  of  the  post,  all  unconscious  of  the  impending 
danger,  was  pouring  forth  the  vexations  of  his  soul  in  a 
pathetic  appeal  to  Gen.  Haldimand  [Sir  Guy  Carleton,  who, 
he  (Rocheblave)  supposed,  was  still]  Governor  of  Canada. 
He  depicted  the  discouragements  of  settlers,  the  disloyal  con 
duct  of  those  of  British  birth  —  enlarged  upon  the  urgency 
of  the  need  for  troops,  the  jealousies  of  the  inhabitants, 
Spanish  encroachments,  and  expatiated  upon  the  'brigandage' 
of  Capt.  Willing  upon  the  Mississippi,  fearing  lest  the 
latter  might  surprise  and  capture  a  position  [Kaskaskia] 
regarded  [by  Rocheblave]  as  of  great  importance."  —  John 
Moses:  History  of  Illinois,  vol.  I,  pp.  148,  149.  (For  Roche- 
blave's  latter  in  full,  translated  from  the  French,  see  Mason's 
Early  Chicago  and  Illinois,  pp.  412-418.  See  also  ante, 
Chap.  Ill  of  our  narrative.) 

t  See  further  as  to  the  capture  of  Fort  Gage,  Appendix, 
Note  XLVIII,  before  cited. 


UHi 


CONSUL  WILSHIRE    BUTTERFIELD. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      113 

the  Indians  upon  us,  offering  great  rewards  for  our 
scalps ;  for  which  service,  he  has  a  salary  of  two  hun 
dred  pounds  sterling  a  year."*  However,  what  was 
really  secured  was,  besides  letters  of  De  Peyster  and 
Governor  Carleton,  those  of  Hamilton  from  Detroit, 
some  of  which  directed  him  to  stimulate  the  Indians 
to  hostility ;  but  neither  of  the  writers  authorized  him 
to  offer  rewards  for  scalps. f 

It  was  arranged  before  hand  that  :n  case  Clark 
met  with  no  resistance  at  the  fort,  he  and  his  men 
were  to  signal  the  other  division  (which,  tradition 
says,  was  commanded  by  Captain  Helm),  by  giving 
a  general  shout,  when  the  town  itself  was  to  be  as 
sailed. £  The  signal  was  promptly  given,  and  the  men 
had  matters  all  their  own  way  in  the  village. §  In 

*  Bowman  to  Hite.  A  Kentucky  historian  says :  "Written 
instructions  from  Detroit  were  found  in  the  possession  of  the 
commandant  Rocheblave,  directing  him  to  unite  the  Indians 
to  commit  depredations  on  the  citizens  of  the  United  States 
and  to  promise  them  rewards  for  scalps,  while  the  conduct 
of  the  savages,  conforming  to  these  instructions,  left  no 
doubt  of  their  having  been  complied  with."  (Marshall's 
Kentucky,  vol.  I,  p.  G8.)  It  will  be  noticed  that  Marshall 
follows  Bowman  closely.  Evidently  he  had  knowledge  of 
what  the  latter  had  written. 

f  Copies  of  these  letters  or  "Instructions,"  as  Bowman 
calls  them  (and  most  of  them  had  the  force  of  instructions) , 
were  kept  by  the  writers  and  they  are  now  among  the  Haldi- 
mand  MSS.  They  show  no  such  "offering,"  (Appendix  to 
our  narrative,  Note  XLVIII,  already  cited,  may  be  con 
sulted  in  this  connection.) 

%  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
124,  125. 

§It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  the  exact  affairs  at  the 
movement  when  Clark  found  the  fort  in  his  possession  with- 

8 


114      HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

fifteen  minutes,  the  Colonel  declares,  he  had  every 
street  secured ;  he  sent  runners  through  the  village 
ordering  the  people  on  pain  of  death  to  keep  close 
to  their  houses,  which  they  observed,  and  before  day 
light  had  all  the  people  disarmed.*  Meanwhile,  every 
avenue  was  guarded  to  prevent  any  escape  to  give 
alarm  to  the  other  villages ;  and  all  the  while,  for  the 
effect  it  might  have,  the  greatest  noise  was  kept  up  by 
the  troops  through  every  quarter  of  the  town.f  "The 
place,"  wrote  Captain  Bowman,  "consists  of  two  hun 
dred  and  fifty  families,  sufficiently  fortified  to  have 
resisted  a  thousand  men."  J 

Clark  sent  for  several  of  the  citizens  during  the 
night  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  intelligence ;  how 
ever,  but  little  information  could  be  obtained  beyond 
what  had  already  been  procured  from  the  hunters  who 
were  "brought  to"  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee,  ex 
cept  that  a  body  of  Indians  lay  at  this  time  in  the 
neighborhood  of  Cahokia,  sixty  miles  up  the  Missis 
sippi,  and  that  Gabriel  Cerre,  a  principal  merchant  of 
Kaskaskia,  was  then  one  of  the  most  inveterate  ene 
mies  of  the  Americans. § 

The  Colonel's  first  act  on  the  morning  of  the  fifth 
was  the  withdrawing  of  all  his  men  from  the  town 

out  resistance  —  at  that  moment  the  other  division  of  his 
command  was  marching  to  occupy  the  village. 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  31. 

f  Clark's  Memoir — Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p. 
125. 

t  Bowman  to  Kite. 

§  Butler's  Kentucky  pp.  53,  54.  See  also  that  author  in 
The  Western  Journal,  vol.  XII,  p.  168.  And  the  tradition 
is  sufficiently  confirmed  by  Monferton  to  Cerre,  Sept.  22, 
1778,  in  the  Haldimand  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      115 

(except  enough  to  garrison  the  fort)  to  different  po 
sitions  around  it.  "During  these  movements,  as  all 
intercourse  with  the  soldiers  by  the  Kaskaskians  had 
been  forbidden  by  Clark  under  heavy  penalties,  and 
even  those  who  had  been  sent  for  had  also  been  or 
dered  to  have  no  communication  with  anyone  else,  — 
distrust  and  terror  overspread  the  village. 

The  result  of  the  removal  of  the  troops  was,  that 
the  citizens  were  permitted  to  walk  about  freely ; 
when,  finding  they  were  busy  in  conversation  with  one 
another,  a  few  of  the  principal  residents,  mostly  militia 
officers  highest  in  command,  Clark  apprehended  and 
put  in  irons,  without  assigning  any  cause  or  his  order, 
or  suffering  any  defense  to  be  made.  "This  immedi 
ately  produced  general  consternation ;"  and  the  people 
expected  the  worst  consequences  from  the  Americans. 

After  some  time,  Pierre  Gibault,  the  Roman  Catho 
lic  priest  of  the  place  (Vicar-General  of  the  Bishop  of 
Quebec  for  the  Illinois  and  adjacent  countries),  got 
permission,  with  five  or  six  elderly  gentlemen,  resi 
dents  of  Kaskaskia,  to  wait  upon  Clark.*  "Shocked 
as  the  citizens  had  been  by  the  sudden  capture  of 
their  town  and  by  such  an  enemy  as  their  imaginations 
had  painted,  the  party  were,  evidently,  still  more 
shocked  when  they  entered  Clark's  quarters,  at  the 
appearance  of  him  and  his  officers.  Their  clothes 
dirty  and  torn  by  the  briars,  their  others  left  at  the 
[Ohio]  river,  —  the  appearance  of  the  chiefs  of  this 

*  According  to  Clark,  Father  Gibanlt  had,  while  in 
Canada  (from  which  country  he  had  lately  come),  made 
himself  somewhat  acquainted  with  the  dispute  between  Britain 
and  America,  and  was,  unlike  a  brother  who  resided  there, 
rather  inclined  to  favor  the  United  States.  —  Clark's  Campaign 
in  the  Illinois,  pp.  33,  34.  See  also  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of 
1859),  p.  126,  127. 


116       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

little  band  was  indeed  frightful  and  savage  (as  Clark 
himself  admits)  to  any  eyes."  * 

It  was  sometime  after  entering  the  room  where 
Clark  and  his  officers  were  seated  before  the  callers 
could  speak ;  and  this  they  did  not  do  even,  until  their 
business  was  demanded.  They  asked  which  was  the 
commander  —  "so  effectually  had  this  backwoods  ex 
pedition  confounded  the  difference  of  rank."  The 
priest  then  said  the  inhabitants  "expected  to  be  sepa 
rated  perhaps  never  to  meet  again."  Giving  up  all  for 
lost,  their  lives  were  all  they  could  dare  beg  for,  which 
they  did  with  the  greatest  subserviency.  They  were 
willing  to  be  slaves  to  save  their  families. 

Clark  told  them  it  did  not  suit  him  to  give  them 
an  answer  at  that  time.  He  gave  permission,  how 
ever,  to  the  citizens  generally  to  go  once  more  to  their 
church  to  take  leave  of  each  other  —  a  request  which 
had  humbly  been  made  by  their  representatives  —  at 
the  same  time  telling  his  auditors,  the  people  must  not 
venture  out  of  town.  Some  further  conversation  was 
attempted  by  the  Kaskaskians  present,  but  it  was  re 
pelled  by  the  Colonel  who  told  them  there  was  no 
longer  leisure  for  further  intercourse.!  This  he  did 

*  "How  much  more  so,"  says  Butler,  "to  this  deputation, 
may  be  easily  conceived  by  those  who  are  acquainted  with  the 
refinement  and  delicacy  of  the  ancient  French  [History  of 
Kentucky,  p.  55]."  But  the  "refinement  and  delicacy  of  the 
ancient  French"  of  the  Illinois  may  well  be  questioned. 

f  The  recollection  of  Clark  many  years  thereafter  was 
to  the  effect  that  the  people  of  the  town  suspected  their 
religion  was  abnoxious  to  the  men  under  his  command,  and 
that  therefore  he  told  the  priest,  carelessly,  that  he  had 
nothing  to  say  against  his  church  —  it  was  a  matter  Amer 
icans  left  for  every  man  to  settle  with  his  God  (Butler: 
History  of  Kentucky,  p.  55;  Dillon:  History  of  Indiana,  pp. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       117 

that  the  alarm  might  be  raised  to  its  utmost  height. 
The  deputation  departed  and  the  whole  village  as 
sembled  at  the  church  —  the  houses  being  deserted  by 
all  who  could  leave  them.  Orders  were  given  to  pre 
vent  any  soldiers  from  entering  the  buildings  left 
without  occupants.  The  people  remained  in  the  church 
for  a  considerable  time,  when  they  repaired  to  their 
houses,  trembling  as  if  being  led  to  execution.  It  did 
not  require  a  lengthy  reflection  on  part  of  the  Ameri 
can  commander  to  determine  his  course  toward  these 
inoffensive  people.  It  was  his  original  idea  to  treat 
them  leniently  should  they  fall  into  his  hands  and,  if 
possible,  attach  them  to  his  interest;  indeed,  as  he 
declares,  his  principles  would  not  suffer  him  to  dis 
tress  such  a  number  of  persons,  unless  through  policy 
it  was  necessary;  —  his  instructions,  also,  from  Gov 
ernor  Henry  were  of  a  like  spirit ;  and  he  now,  in  view 
of  the  fact  that  Cahokia  and  Vincennes  remained  to 
be  secured  and  that  there  were  numerous  Indian  tribes 
in  the  vicinity  attached  to  the  French,  who  were  yet 
to  be  influenced  in  favor  of  the  Americans,  —  resolved 
to  carry  out  his  first  intentions.  In  fact,  the  Colonel, 
as  he  himself  asserts,  was  too  weak  to  treat  the  in 
habitants  in  any  other  manner.* 

Clark  now  sent  for  all  the  most  influential  men  in 
the  town,  not  under  arrest,  to  meet  him  at  headquar 
ters.  They  "came  in  as  if  to  a  tribunal  that  was  to  de 
termine  their  fate  forever,"  says  the  American  com- 

125,  126).  In  his  letter  to  Mason,  Clark  does  not  mention 
this  conversation,  nor  that  the  people  generally  went  to 
the  church,  upon  his  leave,  to  bid  farewell  to  each  other. 
*  Consult,  again,  as  to  what  immediately  followed  on 
the  taking  of  Kaskaskia,  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note 
XLVIII. 


118       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

mander,  "cursing  their  fortune  that  they  were  not  ap 
prised  of  us  time  enough  to  have  defended  themselves. 
I  told  them  that  I  was  sorry  to  find  that  they  had  been 
taught  to  harbor  so  base  an  opinion  of  the  Americans 
and  their  cause.  I  explained  the  nature  of  the  dispute 
to  them  in  as  clear  a  light  as  I  was  capable  of.  It  was 
certain  that  they  were  a  conquered  people,  and  by  the 
fate  of  war  were  at  my  mercy."  But  the  Colonel  here 
declared  that  the  American  principle  was  to  make  such 
as  were  reduced  free  instead  of  slaves.  He  likewise 
told  them  that,  if  he  could  have  a  surety  of  their  zeal 
and  attachment  to  the  American  cause,  they  should 
immediately  enjoy  all  the  privileges  of  the  Govern 
ment  and  their  property  be  secured  to  them.  He  as 
sured  them  that  it  was  only  to  stop  the  farther  effu 
sion  of  innocent  blood  by  the  savages  under  the  in 
fluence  of  Rocheblave  that  made  them  an  object  of 
his  attention ;  and  now  that  the  king  of  France  had 
united  his  powerful  arms  with  those  of  America,  the 
war  would  not  in  all  probability  continue  long.* 

The  citizens,  from  the  deepest  gloom,  "fell  into 
transports  of  joy."  They  assured  Clark  they  had 
always  been  kept  in  the  dark  as  to  the  dispute  between 
America  and  Britain ;  that  they  had  never  heard  any 
thing  before  but  what  was  prejudiced  and  tended  to 
incense  them  against  the  Americans ;  and  that  they 
were  now  convinced  that  it  was  a  cause  that  they  ought 

*  Although  the  reference  to  the  alliance  between  France 
and  the  United  States  is  not  mentioned  by  Clark  in  his  letter 
to  Mason,  it  is  spoken  of  in  his  Memoir;  and,  as  it  would 
hardly  have  been  overlooked  by  the  Colonel  on  the  occasion, 
it  is  given  in  the  text  as  a  verity.  Clark  had  reached  a 
conclusion  not  fully  warranted  by  what  he  had  learned, 
that  the  savages  under  Rocheblave's  influence  were  shedding 
"innocent  blood,"  —  at  least,  to  any  particular  extent. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.        119 

to  espouse ;  that  they  should  be  happy  of  an  oppor 
tunity  to  convince  the  Colonel  of  their  zeal ;  and  they 
would  think  themselves  the  happiest  people  in  the 
world  if  they  were  united  with  the  Americans :  they 
begged  Clark  that  he  would  receive  what  they  said 
as  their  real  sentiments.  In  order  to  be  more  certain 
of  their  sincerity,  the  American  commander  told  them 
an  oath  of  allegiance  would  be  required  of  them ;  but 
to  give  them  time  to  reflect  on  it,  he  would  not  ad 
minister  it  for  a  few  days ;  in  the  meantime  any  of 
them  who  chose  were  at  liberty  to  leave  the  country 
with  their  families  (except  two  or  three  particular 
persons)  ;  that  they  might  repair  to  their  homes  and 
conduct  themselves  as  usual,  without  any  dread.* 

Gibault,  the  priest,  asked  the  Colonel  would  he  give 
him  liberty  to  perform  his  duty  in  his  church.  Clark 
told  him  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  churches  more  than 
to  defend  them  from  insult ;  that  by  the  laws  of  Vir 
ginia,  his  religion  had  as  great  privileges  as  any  other. 

"This,"  says  Clark,  "seemed  to  complete  their  hap 
piness.  They  returned  to  their  families,  and  in  a 
few  minutes  the  scene  of  mourning  and  distress  was 
turned  to  an  excess  of  joy  —  nothing  else  was  seen 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  33.  Who  the  two  or  three  particular  persons  were  that 
were  not  permitted  to  leave  the  country  at  that  time  will 
presently  appear.  "Perfect  freedom  was  now  given  to  the 
inhabitants  to  go  or  come  as  they  pleased,  so  confident 
were  our  countrymen,  that  whatever  report  might  be  made, 
[it]  would  be  to  the  credit  and  success  of  the  American 
arms."  (Butler:  History  of  Kentucky,  p.  57.)  How  this 
freedom  was  subsequently  abused,  will  hereafter  be  seen. 
The  first  to  leave  for  Detroit  to  carry  the  news  to  Hamilton 
was  Francis  Maisonville.  (Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July 
6,  1781  — Germain  MSS.) 


120       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

or  heard."  They  adorned  the  streets  with  flowers, 
hung  out  flags  of  different  colors,  and  completed  their 
happiness  by  singing  and  other  demonstrations  of  de 
light.*  The  oath  of  Allegiance  to  Virginia  and  the 
United  States  was  soon  after  taken  by  them.f 

The  action  of  the  Colonel  in  imprisoning  a  few 
Kaskaskians  was  a  precaution  taken  not  to  let  the  most 
influential  of  his  enemies  (if,  really,  they  should  prove 
such)  escape.  But  the  throwing  them  and  Rocheblave 
in  irons  (for  such  was  the  treatment  accorded  to  the 
latter  also)  was  an  excess  of  caution,  if  nothing  more.J 
Notably  among  those  deprived  of  their  liberty  was  M. 
Cerre,  the  merchant  who  had  been  accused  of  being 
a  most  determined  foe  to  the  Americans.  He  too,  was 
ironed. § 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
pp.  33,  34.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  XLIX.) 

f  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  35.  "In  a  few  days"  are  Clark's  words,  "the  inhabitants 
of  the  country  took  the  oath  subscribed  [authorized]  by  law, 
and  every  person  appeared  to  be  happy."  That  the  citizens 
took  the  oath  of  allegiance  both  to  Virginia  and  the  United 
States  is  evident.  In  his  Memoir  [Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of 
1859),  p.  127],  Clark  says  it  was  to  Virginia.  But,  that 
the  United  States  was  included,  Bowman  to  Hite,  makes 
it  sufficiently  evident.  And  corroborative  is  Hamilton  to 
Carleton,  Aug.  8,  1778;  also  De  Peyster  to  Haldimand, 
Aug.  31,  1778  and  January  29,  1779:  Haldimand  MSS. 

t  Nowhere  in  any  writing  by  Clark  does  he  say  that 
Rocheblave  was  ironed;  but  such  was  the  fact.  Butler  (His 
tory  of  Kentucky,  p.  54)  apologizes  for  Clark  in  these  words: 
"These  measures  [the  putting  in  irons  of  Kaskaskians]  were 
taken  from  no  wanton  cruelty;  for,  of  all  men,  Colonel  Clark 
enjoyed  the  mildest  and  most  affectionate  disposition;  and  he 
severely  felt,  as  he  says,  every  hardship  he  believed  himself 
compelled  to  inflict." 

§  As   to  the   ironing   and    imprisonment,   see   De   Peyster 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       121 

The  treatment  given  Rocheblave  on  his  being  cap 
tured,  was  according  to  British  reports,  such  as  to 
approach  the  verge  of  barbarity.  He  was  not  only 
ironed  but  was  confined  in  an  outbuilding  inside  the 
pickets  of  the  fort,  where  hogs  had  been  kept.  The 
commander's  wife,  it  was  also  alleged,  was  offered 
indignities.*  However,  the  putting  in  irons  and  im 
prisonment  of  citizens  was  only  for  a  few  hours  dura 
tion,  except  as  to  Rocheblave  and  Cerre. f  And  even 
they,  it  is  probable,  were  only  ironed  for  a  short  time, 
though  they  were  still  kept  in  close  confinement.^ 

to  Haldimand,  Aug.  31,  -1778  and  Monferton  to  Cerre, 
Sept.  22,  same  year.  —  Haldimand  MSS.  An  account  sent 
by  one  Chevalier,  a  Frenchman  from  St.  Joseph,  to  De  Pey- 
ster,  that  Rocheblave  and  Cerre  were  put  in  irons  because 
of  having  refused  [to  take]  the  oaths  of  allegiance  to  the 
king  of  Spain,  the  French  king,  and  the  Congress"  was,  of 
course,  a  rediculous  report.  (De  Peyster  to  Haldimand, 
Aug.  31,  1778  —  Haldimand  MSS.)  See  Appendix  to  our 
narrative,  Note  XXV. 

*  Hamilton  to  Carleton,  Aug.  8  and  De  Peyster  to  Haldi 
mand  Aug.  31,  1778  —  Haldimand  MSS.;  also,  especially, 
Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781  —  Germain  MSS. 
The  words  of  the  Lieutenant  Governor  are,  as  to  Rocheblave, 
that  he  "was  laid  in  irons  and  put  in  a  place  where  hogs 
had  been  kept,  ankle  deep  in  filth."  But,  probably,  this  was 
an  exaggeration.  See  Appendix,  Note  — . 

f  Such,  at  least,  is  to  be  infered  from  Clark's  Memoir  — 
Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859) ,  p.  126.  They  were  probably 
all  released  before  the  night  of  the  fight,  except  Rocheblave 
and  Cerre. 

I  A  month  after  he  was  captured,  the  prisoner  wrote  to 
Carleton:  "I  say  nothing  to  you  of  my  prison,  which  there 
is  nothing  like  in  Algiers."  (Mason's  Early  Chicago  and 
Illinois,  p.  419.)  If  credit  is  to  be  given  to  tradition,  there 
was  some  excuse  for  the  ill  treatment  accorded  Rocheblave, 
as  he  did  not  hesitate  to  continually  denounce  the  American 
commander. 


122       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Cerre,  upon  regaining  his  freedom  (he  having 
been  finally  set  at  liberty),  immediately  crossed  the 
Mississippi  to  St.  Louis,  leaving  his  family  and  an 
extensive  assortment  of  merchandise  in  Kaskaskia.* 
It  then  occurred  to  Clark  that  a  person  of  so  much 
importance  must,  if  possible,  be  gained  over  to  the 
cause  of  the  United  States ;  for  his  influence,  the 
American  commander  quickly  saw,  would  be  of  the 
utmost  consequence  if  exerted  in  the  right  direction. 
A  guard  was  therefore  soon  placed  around  his  house 
to  the  end  that  none  of  his  family  or  property  should 
be  disturbed;  but  he  gave  out  that  the  object  was 
to  secure  boats  because  Cerre  by  fleeing  had  virtually 
acknowledged  himself  an  enemy,  and  that  he  had  been 
guilty  of  inciting  the  Indians  against  the  Americans. 
Clark  then  patiently  awaited  developments.f  The 
Colonel  had  already  turned  his  attention  to  Cahokia. 
He  prepared  on  the  afternoon  of  the  fifth,  a  detach 
ment  on  horseback  —  Illinois  horses,  of  course,  had 
to  be  used  — under  Captain  Bowman  "to  make  a  de 
scent"  On  that  village  which  was,  as  we  have  seen, 
about  sixty  miles  "up  the  country."  The  Kaskaskians 
assured  the  American  commander  that  one  of  their 
own  townsmen  was  enough  to  put  him  in  possession 
of  the  place  "by  carrying  the  good  news"  of  the  treat 
ment  they  had  received ;  but  Clark  "did  not  altogether 
choose  to  trust  them."  As  it  was,  the  Captain  and  his 
men  were  attended  by  a  considerable  number  of  the 
Kaskaskia  citizens. J  Bowman  "got  into  the  middle  of 

*  Butler  has  it,  that,  at  the  time  of  Clark's  arrival, 
Cerre  was  in  St.  Louis,  which,  of  course,  is  error. 

t  Butler  in   Western  Journal,  loc.  cit. 

%  Clark's  recollection  years  after  was,  that  these  Kas 
kaskians  were  commanded  by  former  militia  officers  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,   ETC.      123 

the  town  before  they  were  discovered ;  the  French 
gentlemen  calling  aloud  to  the  people  to  submit  to 
their  happier  fate,  which  they  did  with  very  little  hesi 
tation.  A  number  of  Indians  being  in  town,  on  hear 
ing  of  the  'Big  Knives,'  immediately  made  their  es 
cape." 

"I  was  ordered  by  our  commanding  officer  (Colonel 
Clark),"  says  Captain  Bowman,  "with  thirty  men  on 
horseback  to  attack  three  other  French  towns  up  the 
Mississippi.  The  first,  called  Prairie  du  Rocher,  is 
about  fifteen  miles  from  Kaskaskia,  the  town  wre  had 
in  possession ;  and  before  they  had  any  knowledge  of 
my  arrival,  I  was  in  possession  of  the  place,  which  was 
no  small  surprise  to  them ;  in  consequence  of  which, 
they  were  willing  to  comply  with  any  terms  I  should 
piopose." 

"Thence,"  continues  the  Captain,  "I  passed  to  St. 
Philip's,  about  nine  miles  farther  up  the  river,  which 
I  likewise  took  possession  of ;  and  as  it  was  impossible 
for  them  to  know  my  strength  (the  whole  being  trans 
acted  in  the  night)  they  also  came  to  my  own  terms. 
I  proceeded  thence  to  Cahokia,  about  forty  or  fifty 
miles  above  St.  Philip's,  which  contained  about  one 
hundred  families.  We  rode  immediately  to  the  com 
mander's  house  and  demanded  a  surrender  of  him  and 
the  whole  town,  which  was  at  once  complied  with.  I 
then  possessed  myself  of  a  large  stone  house,  well 
fortified  for  war.  I  was  immediately  threatened  by  a 
man  of  the  place  that  he  would  call  in  one  hundred 

town  (Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  58)  ;  rather  vaguely  expressed 
by  Dillon  (History  of  Indiana,  p.  127)  as  being  "a  volunteer 
company  of  French  militia."  It  is  said  that  "all  set  off  in 
high  spirits  at  this  new  mark  of  confidence  under  the  free 
government  of  Virginia." 


124       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

and  fifty  Indians  to  his  assistance  and  cut  me  off. 
This  fellow  I  took  care  to  secure ;  but  we  lay  upon  our 
arms  the  whole  night,  this  being  the  third  night  with 
out  sleep."  * 

"In  the  morning,"  the  Captain  goes  on  to  say,  "I 
required  the  inhabitants  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance 
to  the  States  or  I  should  treat  them  as  enemies,  which 
they  readily  agreed  to;  and  before  ten  o'clock  there 
were  one  hundred  and  fifty  who  followed  the  example. 
In  less  than  ten  days,  there  were  three  hundred  who 
took  the  oaths,  and  they  now  appear  much  attached 
to  our  cause."  f 

The  inhabitants  of  the  two  principal  towns  having 
thus  sworn  fealty  to  the  United  States  and  to  Virginia 
and  the  smaller  villages  having  submitted  to  the  Vir 
ginians,  —  "the  British  Illinois"  become  at  once  (and, 
it  may  be  premised,  permanently)  American.  And  all 

*  Bowman  to  Hite.  Clark's  subsequent  assertion  that 
Bowman's  force  was  made  up  of  the  Captain's  company  and 
part  of  another,  is  at  fault;  although  there  was  in  the 
detachment,  doubtless,  men  from  two  companies  —  principally 
from  Bowman's.  It  was  not  strictly  true  that  Clark  ordered 
Bowman  "to  attack"  the  other  towns.  He  was  "to  make  a 
descent"  on  Cahokia,  it  being  well  understood  by  both  the 
Colonel  and  the  Captain  that,  in  all  probability,  no  resist 
ance  would  be  offered. 

t  Bowman  to  Hite.  The  above  was  written  almost  at 
the  very  time  of  the  expiration  of  the  ten  days.  In  an 
"Account  of  the  French  Forts  Ceded  to  Great  Britain  in 
Louisiana,"  written  before  the  English  occupation  of  the 
Illinois,  is  the  following  with  reference  to  Cahokia:  "Fifteen 
leagues  from  Fort  Chartres,  going  up  the  Mississippi,  is  the 
village  of  Casquiars  [Cahokia].  There  is  a  small  stockade 
fort;  I  don't  know  if  there  is  any  cannon.  There  may  be 
about  100  inhabitants." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       125 

this  had  been  accomplished  without  the  shedding  of 
a  drop  of  blood ! 

Clark's  success,  thus  far,  extraordinary  though  it 
was,  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  because  of  any  great 
display  of  military  genius.  He  had  not  encountered 
an  enemy  of  any  strength  either  inside  a  fortification 
or  in  the  field.  At  the  start,  it  had  been  his  faith  in 
previous  information  gained  by  him  that  determined 
him  to  undertake  'the  expedition ;  and  once  under 
taken,  his  firmness  and  resolution  would  not  permit 
him  to  yield  to  any  discouragement.  But  there  was 
one  element  in  his  success  that  the  greatest  and  wisest 
of  Generals  do  not  fail  to  invoke  as  one  of  the  most 
important  factors  in  military  science  —  and  that  was 
secrecy.  Much  was  due  to  his  suavity  of  manners  — 
much  to  his  readiness  to  share  to  the  fullest  extent 
with  his  men  their  trials  and  hardships,  —  but  it  was 
the  secrecy  which  he  so  completely  maintained  as  to 
the  real  object  of  his  undertaking  that,  in  the  end,  in 
sured  his  triumph.  What  he  had  accomplished  (had 
he  subsequently  done  no  more)  would  not  have,  hence 
forth,  given  him  the  prestige  for  a  capacity  for  great 
military  talents  or  sagacity;  nevertheless,  there  was 
already  enough  to  his  credit  to  entitle  him  to  the  dis 
tinction  of  having  his  acts  spoken  of  as  heroic. 

But  writers  of  Western  history,  in  the  past,  have 
been  prone  to  exaggerate  the  troubles  and  trials  —  the 
fears  and  sufferings  —  which  from  the  commencement 
of  the  expedition  to  the  capture  of  the  Illinois  villages, 
beset  the  Colonel  and  his  men.  Says  one  of  these 
chroniclers : 

"A  law  had  been  passed  for  the  raising  of  a  regi 
ment ;  the  troops  had  been  enlisted,  officered  and 


126      HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

equipped,  transported  thirteen  hundred  miles  by  land 
and  water,  through  a  wilderness  country,  inhabi 
ted  by  Indian  allies  of  the  enemy,  and  marched  into 
a  garrisoned  town,  without  the  slightest  suspicion, 
much  less  discovery,  of  the  movement.  When  we 
observe  the  amount  of  time  and  labor  which  is 
now  expended  in  making  a  journey  from  Virginia 
to  Kaskaskia  [this  was  written  before  there  was 
railway  communication  between  the  two],  with  all 
our  improvements,  and  reflect  how  incalculably 
greater  must  have  been  the  difficulties  of  such 
a  journey  at  that  time,  when  there  was.no  road  across 
the  mountains,  nor  any  boats  in  which  to  navigate 
the  rivers  but  such  rude  craft  as  the  traveler  might 
construct  for  his  own  convenience ;  and  when  we  take 
into  consideration  the  difficulty  of  transporting  pro 
visions  and  ammunition  through  a  wild  region,  the  suc 
cessful  expedition  of  Colonel  Clark  [in  capturing  the 
Illinois  towns]  will  present  itself  as  a  brilliant  military 
achievement."  * 

Strictly  speaking,  Clark  did  not  travel,  on  his 
journey  from  Williamsburg  to  Kaskaskia,  through 
any  portion  of  a  country  inhabited  by  Indians;  and 
it  can  hardly  be  said  he  marched  into  a  garrisoned 
town  when  he  reached  the  objective  point  of  his  expe 
dition.  Not  much  difficulty  could  have  been  experi 
enced  by  the  recruits  in  reaching  Redstone;  and  the 
force  there  collected  dropped  down  the  Monongahela 
and  Ohio  to  the  Kentucky  rendezvous  with  little  trou 
ble  and  in  boats  far  from  being  rude  in  their  construc 
tion.  From  the  islands  to  just  above  "Old  Fort  Mas- 
sac,"  with  oars  doubled-manned,  surely  there  was  not 

*Hall:     Romance  of   Western   History,    p.   296. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       127 

much  hardship  encountered.  Thence,  however,  to  Kas- 
kaskia  there  was  real  suffering  for  the  last  two  days 
from  hunger.  Now,  in  all  this  journey  from  its  begin 
ning  to  its  end,  with  the  surrender  of  the  Illinois  vil 
lagers,  no  events  happened  —  no  difficulties  were  over 
come  —  that  could  stamp  the  enterprise  thus  far  as  "a 
brilliant  military  achievement."  But,  it  may  be  pre 
mised,  Clark's  campaign  was  far  from  being  ended. 
Heroic  valor  —  "military  achievement"  of  acknowl 
edged  force  (to  say  the  least)  — is  yet  to  be  chron 
icled  ;  and  under  such  circumstances  was  success 
finally  assured,  that  it  cannot  fail  to  be  considered 
almost  beyond  the  reach  of  human  energy. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

f  w  A  HE  occupation  of  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia  by 
Clark's  force  was  at  once  followed  by  friendly 
demonstrations  from  the  Spanish  side  of  the 
Mississippi.  This  was  so  marked  that  Clark  opened 
a  correspondence  with  Fernando  de  Leyba,  "Captain 
in  the  Infantry  Regiment  of  Louisiana,  Commander- 
in-chief  and  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Upper  Louisi 
ana,  headquarters  at  St.  Louis."  "Our  friends,  the 
Spaniards,"  says  Clark,  "did  everything  in  their  power 
to  convince  me  of  their  friendship."* 

It  was  now  that  Vincennes  began  to  engage  no 
small  share  of  Colonel  Clark's  attention ;  and  why  not, 
seeing  that  the  Illinois  towns  had  submitted  to  his  au 
thority?  He  knew  that  the  people  there  had  learned 
of  his  presence  in  Kaskaskia,  but  he  concluded  he  was 
by  no  means  able  to  march  against  them,  although 
Abbott,  the  lieutenant-governor,  had  left  the  place. 
The  American  commander  was  determined,  if  possi 
ble,  to  conquer  them  in  a  peaceable  way  (as  they  were 
now  left  to  themselves)  by  winning  their  affections. 
But  he  must  first  know  their  sentiments  —  what  their 
feelings  were  toward  the  Americans. 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  35.  "Clark  sent  the  Lieutenant-Governor  [De  Leyba] 
a  number  of  letters.  [Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p. 
35.]  They  are  in  Spain  as  are  all  of  De  Leyba's  papers  and 
probably  have  not  been  inspected  for  three  quarters  of  a 
century.  [Brymner:  Report  on  Canadian  Archives  1883, 
p.  14.]  Who  can  speak  as  to  their  contents?"  [Oscar  W 
Collett,  in  Magazine  of  Western  History,  vol.  I,  (Feb.,  1885) 
p.  273.] 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC,       129 

To  execute  his  plans,  the  Colonel  pretended  he  was 
about  to  send  an  express  to  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  for  a 
body  of  troops  to  join  him  at  a  certain  place  in  order 
to  attack  the  town.  This  soon  had  the  desired  ef 
fect.  Advocates  immediately  appeared  before  Clark 
in  its  behalf.  Father  Gibault,  as  if  to  convince  the 
latter  of  his  attachment,  offered  to  undertake  to  win 
the  village  for  the  American  commander  if  permitted 
to  make  the  trial,  only  requesting  that  a  few  Kaskas- 
kians  go  with  him.  There  seemed  to  be  no  doubt 
among  the  people  of  their  being  able  peaceably  to  gain 
the  inhabitants  there  to  the  Colonel's  interest.  Gi 
bault  gave  Clark  to  understand  that,  although  he  had 
nothing  to  do  with  temporal  business,  he  would  hint  to 
his  friends  upon  the  Wabash  enough  to  be  very  con- 
ducive  to  successs. 

Gibault  named  as  his  associate,  a  Dr.  Le  Font. 
The  whole  plan,  which  was  perfectly  agreeable  to 
Clark  and  was  what  he  was  then  secretly  aiming  at 
and  had  been  for  some  days,  was  immediately  settled. 
The  priest  and  the  doctor  with  a  small  retinue  (of 
whom  one  was  an  American  spy)  started  on  the  four 
teenth,  going  on  horseback*  and  taking  with  them  in 
structions  to  be  followed  in  case  of  success,  also  an 
address  to  the  inhabitants  of  Vincennes,  authorizing- 
them  to  garrison  their  town  themselves,  to  convince 
them  of  the  confidence  reposed  in  them  by  the  Amer- 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Aug.  8,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  It  is  also  stated  in  a  letter  written  by  him  to  the 
General  on  the  llth.  It  seems  that  Gibault  before  starting 
went  to  Cahokia,  going  thence  by  way  of  Kaskaskia,  which 
he  left  on  the  14th.  It  was  from  Cahokia  that  he  started  on 
horseback,  but  there  is  no  doubt  he  journeyed  from  Kaskaskia 
in  the  same  way. 

9 


130       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

ican  commander.  Verbal  instructions  from  Governor 
Henry,  as  we  have  seen,  authorized  this  attempt,  now 
that  the  Illinois  was  reduced,  even  had  it  been  deter 
mined  to  use  coercive  measures. 

Upon  the  arrival  of  the  party  at  Vincennes,  a  short 
time  was  spent  by  the  Kaskaskians  in  explaining  mat 
ters  to  its  inhabitants.  They  (with  the  exception  of  a 
few  disaffected  ones,  mostly  traders,  who  from  interest 
were  attached  to  Governor  Abbot  and  the  government 
he  had  represented  on  the  Wabash,  and  who  imme 
diately  left  the  country)  acceded  to  the  proposal  to 
make  common  cause  with  America.  The  citizens  went 
in  a  body  to  the  church  where  the  oath  of  allegiance 
was  administered  to  them  in  the  most  solemn  manner. 
An  officer  was  elected,  Fort  Sackville  immediately 
garrisoned,  and  the  American  flag  displayed  to  the  as 
tonishment  of  the  Indians.  Hamilton  subsequently 
learned  from  an  Indian  report  that  the  British  flag  left 
there  by  Abbott  was,  when  taken  down,  wrapped 
around  a  large  stone  and  thrown  into  the  Wabash.* 

The  savages  in  Vincennes  were  informed  that  their 
old  father,  the  French  King,  had  come  to  life  again. 
A  Piankeshaw  chief  of  great  influence  among  his  na 
tion,  known  as  the  "Big  Gate,"  or  "Big  Door,"  and 
called  by  the  Indians  "The  Grand  Door  to  the  Wa 
bash"  (controlled,  as  he  did,  the  lower  portion  —  the 
"gate"  or  "door"  —  of  the  river),  received  a  spirited 

*  Proceedings  of  the  Rebels  at  Vincennes,  as  Related  to 
Lieut.  Gov'r  Hamilton  by  Ncegik,  an  Ottawa  War  Chief, 
Oct.  14,  1778.  —  Haldimand  MSS.  But  this  Indian  report 
confounded  the  subsequent  arrival  of  a  "rebel"  officer  to 
take  command  of  Fort  Sackville,  with  the  previous  visit  of 
Gibault  when  the  British  flag  was  taken  down  and  the, 
American  flag  raised. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       131 

compliment  from  Father  Gibault,  who  was  much  liked 
by  the  Indians ;  and,  through  the  chief's  father,  known 
as  "Old  Tobacco,"*  Big  Door  returned  the  compli 
ment,  which  was  soon  followed  by  a  "talk"  and  a  belt 
of  wampum. f 

Gibault  and  party,  accompanied  by  several  gentle 
men  from  Vincennes,  returned  to  Kaskaskia  about  the 
first  of  August  "with  the  joyful  news."J 

There  was  one  who  did  not  go  back  with  Gibault. 
This  was  the  American  spy,  Simon  Kenton,  who  had 
with  him  dispatches  from  Clark  to  Colonel  Bowman, 
the  County  Lieutenant  of  Kentucky  county,  giving  a 
full  recital  of  his  success  in  the  Illinois.  Kenton  was 
also  enjoined  to  make  a  close  observation  of  all  the 
incidents  connected  with  the  visit  of  Father  Gibault 
and  send  back  an  account  of  the  same  to  the  American 
commandant  at  Kaskaskia.  This  was  done  and  Ken- 
ton  then  made  his  way  to  Kentucky,  reaching  Colonel 
Bowman  at  Harrodsburg  in  thirteen  days  from  Vin- 
cennes.  After  delivering  his  dispatches,  he  went  to 
Boonesborough. 

But  the  journey  of  Kenton  from  Kaskaskia  to 
Harrodsburg,  by  way  of  Vincennes,  has  been,  in  many 
particulars,  distorted  in  the  Annals  of  the  West.  The 
principal  errors  to  be  noted  in  these  traditionary  ac 
counts  are,  that  Kenton  reached  Vincennes  before  Gi 
bault  ;  that  he  reconnoitered  the  place  undiscovered ; 

'*See   Appendix,    Note   LXVI. 

f  Compare   Western  Annals,   pp.   173,    174. 

J  See  also  as  to  the  winning  of  Vincennes  to  the  Amer 
ican  interests,  under  management  of  Gibault,  Appendix, 
Note  L. 


132       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

and  that  he  then  sent  Clark  a  statement  of  what  had 
come  under  his  observation.* 

Soon  after  his  release,  the  merchant,  Cerre',  at  St. 
Louis,  became  uneasy  that  his  family  and  property 
should  be  kept  under  guard  at  Kaskaskia ;  and  fear 
ing  to  venture  into  Clark's  power  without  a  safe-con 
duct,  procured  the  recommendation  of  the  Spanish 
Lieutenant-Governor  at  the  first  mentioned  place,  also 
that  of  the  commandant  at  St.  Genevieve, —  supported 
by  the  influence  of  the  greater  part  of  the  citizens  of 
both  places.  It  was  all  in  vain.  The  American  com 
mander  peremptorily  refused  giving  him  the  desired 
security,  at  the  same  time  intimating  that  he  wished 
to  hear  no  more  such  applications.  He  understood, 
he  said,  that  Cerre'  was  a  sensible  man,  and  if  he  were 
innocent  of  the  charge  of  inciting  the  Indians  against 
the  Americans,  he  need  not  be  afraid  of  delivering 
himself  up.  Backwardness  would  only  increase  sus 
picion  against  him. 

Cerre'  soon  crossed  over  from  St.  Louis  and  boldly 
repaired  to  Clark's  headquarters  in  Kaskaskia,  and  in 
quired  of  the  Colonel  what  crimes  he  stood  charged 
with.  He  was  informed  that  he  was  accused  of  en 
couraging  the  Indians  in  their  murders  and  devasta 
tions  on  the  American  frontier.  This,  Cerre'  flatly  de 
nied  and  declared  his  willingness  to  meet  any  such 
charges  at  once.  His  accusers  were  sent  for,  but  up 
on  confronting  the  accused  they  had  little  to  say  —  in 
short,  they  could  bring  no  proof  whatever  against  him, 
and  the  French  merchant  was  honorably  acquitted  and 
his  family  and  goods  immediately  restored  to  him.  It 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  L.  Consult  as  to  a. fiction  concern 
ing  a  contemplated  attack  from  Kaskaskia,  Vincennes  and 
Detroit  against  Kentucky.  Appendix,  Note  LI. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       133 

is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that  he  at  once  took  the 
oath  of  allegiance  and  became  a  most  valuable  friend 
to  America.* 

While  Gibault  was  making  a  bloodless  conquest 
of  Vincennes  for  Virginia,  Clark,  at  Kaskaskia  was 
"exceedingly  engaged"  in  regulating  matters  in  the 
Illinois.  Three  months,  the  period  for  which  his  men 
had  enlisted,  had  expired.  Something  must  be  done 
and  done  speedily.  The  commander  was,  at  the  time, 
at  a  great  loss  how  to  act  —  how  far,  indeed,  he  might 
venture  to  strain  his  authority.  His  instructions  were 
silent  on  many  important  points ;  for  it  was,  of  course, 
impossible  for  Governor  Henry  and  his  Council  to 
foresee  all  the  events  that  had  taken  place-  To  aban 
don  the  country  and  all  the  prospects  that  opened  to 
view  for  the  good  of  America,  for  want  of  instructions 
in  certain  cases,  the  Colonel  thought  would  amount  to 
a  reflection  on  the  Government  which  had  entrusted 
him  with  charge  of  the  expedition.  He  resolved, 
therefore,  to  usurp  all  the  authority  necessary  to  re 
tain  the  fruits  of  his  success. 

"I  now  found  myself,"  says  the  commandant,  "in 
possession  of  the  whole  [of  the  Illinois  and  of  Vin 
cennes],  in  a  country  where  I  could  do  more  real  ser 
vice  than  I  expected,  which  occasioned  my  situation  to 
be  the  more  disagreeable,  as  I  wanted  men;"  for  the 

*  Mann  Butler,  in  The  Western  Journal,  vol.  XII, 
pp.  168,  240,  241.  Mention  of  Cerre  is  made  in  Rocheblave 
to  Carleton,  [Aug.  3?],  1778— Haldimand  MSS.,  where, 
it  is  intimated,  he  was  then  on  good  terms  with  Clark. 
[As  to  Butler's  account  to  be  found  in  his  History  of  Ken 
tucky,  of  the  meeting  between  Clark  and  Cerre  see  Appendix, 
Note  LIL  In  a  subsequent  note  (LVIII)  will  be  found 
also  opinions  from  British  accounts  of  the  treatment  accorded 
to  Cerre  and  Rocheblave  in  putting  them  in  irons.] 


134       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

greatest  part  of  those  under  his  command  "was  for  re 
turning,  as  they  were  no  longer  engaged."  Surround 
ing  him,  though  at  a  considerable  distance  away,  most 
of  them,  were  numerous  nations  of  savages,  whose 
minds  had  been  poisoned  by  the  English;  notwith 
standing  this  many  of  his'  men,  whose  term  of  enlist 
ment  had  expired,  insisted  on  leaving  the  service. 
"It  was,"  says  Clark,  "with  difficulty  that  I  could  sup 
port  the  dignity  that  was  essential  to  give  my  orders 
the  force  that  was  necessary"  •  —  such  was  the  dis 
quietude  of  his  mind. 

The  Colonel  soon  had  about  one  hundred  of  his 
men  reenlisted  for  eight  months,  but  this  was  brought 
about  by  "great  presents  and  promises"  only.  To  give 
color  to  his  remaining  with  so  few  troops,  he  made  a 
feint  of  returning  to  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  as  though 
he  had  sufficient  confidence  in  the  people  to  trust  them 
with  the  management  of  affairs,  hoping  they  would 
remonstrate  against  his  leaving.  This  they  did  in  the 
warmest  terms.  They  represented  the  necessity  of 
troops  remaining  at  Kaskaskia,  declaring  they  were 
fearful  if  the  town  was  vacated  and  the  commander 
returned  to  the  Falls  with  his  men  that  the  English 
would  again  possess  the  country.  So  the  Colonel, 
seemingly  by  their  request,  consented  to  remain  with 
two  companies  —  though  he  hardly  thought  (he  pre 
tended)  that  so  many  were  necessary.  If  more  were 
wanted,  he  declared,  he  could  get  them  at  any  time 
from  the  Falls,  where,  the  citizens  were  made  to  be 
lieve,  there  was  a  considerable  garrison. 

As  soon  as  possible  (it  was  probably  the  fourth  of 
August)  the  Commander  sent  off  all  those  —  seventy 
in  number  —  who  "could  not  be  got  to  stay,"  —  Wil 
liam  Linn  taking  charge  of  the  returning  troops,  all  of 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      135 

whom  were  to  be  discharged  at  the  Falls.  He  also 
took  with  him  an  order  to  have  the  post  there  re 
moved  from  the  island  to  the  mainland  on  the  Ken 
tucky  side  of  the  river.  This  was,  in  reality,  the 
founding  of  the  present  city  of  Louisville.  And  while 
Clark  is  not  entitled  to  the  distinction  of  having  been 
the  founder  of  Kentucky  so  frequently  given  him,  he 
is  properly  credited  with  being  the  father  of  its  chief 
city. 

Captain  Montgomery  was,  at  the  same  time,  or 
dered  to  proceed  to  Williamsburg  with  letters  en 
trusted  to  him,  directed  to  the  Virginia  governor,  giv 
ing  a  full  account  of  the  success  thus  far  of  the  expe 
dition  ;  the  situation  of  affairs  at  the  date  of  writing ; 
and  the  necessity  there  was  for  more  troops.  With 
him,  Rocheblave  was  sent  a  prisoner  (there  were  none 
others)  to  the  Virginia  seat  of  government.* 

*  Monnette's  History  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  vol.  I, 
p.  422;  Rocheblave  to  Carleton,  Aug.  3,  1778  —  Haldimand 
MSS.;  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp.  36,  37.  "I 
came  off  with  the  volunteers,  having  instructions  from  Colonel 
(now  General)  Clark  to  wait  on  his  Excellency,  the  Governor 
[of  Virginia] ,  as  soon  as  possible  with  letters  and  verbal 
messages."  (Montgomery  to  the  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  the  Settlement  of  Western  Accts.,  Feb.  22,  1783  —  Calen 
dar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  441;  Mason's 
Early  Chicago,  p.  352.)  That  Montgomery  probably  started 
on  the  fourth  of  August,  is  to  be  inferred  from  the  lettet 
of  Rocheblave  to  Carleton  of  the  day  previous.  "As  Clark 
had  secured  the  friendship  of  the  Spanish  commandant  at 
St.  Louis,  he  felt  secure  from  molestation  for  the  present, 
and  sent  a  party  home  to  Virginia  with  the  news  of  his 
bloodless  conquest."  —  Fiske:  The  American  Revolution, 
vol.  II,  p.  106.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  the  friendship 
spoken  of  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  Colonel's  act  in  sending 
off  any  of  his  men.  Mr.  Mason,  in  his  excellent  work, 


136      HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

The  throwing  of  Rocheblave  in  irons  upon  his 
capture  in  Fort  Gage  was  not  the  only  harsh  treatment 
accorded  him :  there  was  a  confiscation  of  much  of  his 
private  property,  —  his  slaves  in  particular  being  sold 
for  five  hundred  pounds  sterling,  which  was  distrib 
uted  among  the  troops  as  prize  money.  It  was  an  un 
warranted  proceeding. 

The  day  before  Rocheblave's  departure  for  Wil- 
liamsburg,  he  ''stole  a  moment"  from  his  guards  in 
order  to  write  Carleton,  giving  him  information  as  to 
his  having  been  captured  by  "Mr.  Clark,  the  self- 
styled  Colonel." 

"The  majority  of  the  inhabitants,"  continued 
Rocheblave,  "knowing  the  maneuvers  which  had  oc 
curred  on  the  lower  part  of  the  Mississippi,  were  re 
solved  to  defend  themselves;  but  the  dealings  of  our 
neighbors,  the  Spaniards,  and  the  abuse  of  the  treach 
erous  English.  .  .  prevented  them  from  doing  it. 
There  remained  to  me.,  for  a  resource,  Mr.  Legras, 
who  prepared  himself  with  forty  men  to  come  and  join 
me  from  Fort  Vincennes,  where  he  is  captain  of  mi 
litia  ;  but  the  rebels  having  landed  on  the  [north  side 
of  the]  Ohio  sixty  leagues  from  here,  crossed  the  neck 
of  land  which  separates  that  river  from  this  place, 
and  prevented  that." 

"Uselessly,"  further  wrote  the  prisoner,  "I  have, 
for  two  years  past,  been  representing  the  necessity  of 
cutting  off  the  communication  between  the  Ohio  and 
the  Mississippi  carried  on  with  the  Spaniards.  It  is 

Early  Chicago  and  Illinois,  p.  373,  inadvertantly  says  that 
"Clark  sent  those  of  his  men  whom  he  could  not  persuade 
to  reenlist  to  carry  letters  to  Gov.  Patrick  Henry  at  Williams- 
burg  and  with  them  went  Rocheblave  across  the  Alleghanies 
in  custody,"  —  citing  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  37. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      137 

open;  and  I  hope  that  there  does  not  result  more  in 
convenience  than  I  had  predicted. 

"I  beg  your  Excellency,"  added  the  now  disconso 
late  writer,  "to  pay  the  expenses  for  which  I  have 
drawn  on  Mr.  Dunn.  I  entreat  you  to  have  pity  on 
the  family  of  Captain  Hugh  Lord  left  with  mine, 
without  resource,  their  effects  and  mine  having  been, 
for  the  most  part  seized  and  sold.  I  leave  here  a  wife 
and  seven  children  deprived  of  the  first  necessities  of 
life.  They  [The  Americans]  say  that  I  depart  to 
morrow  for  the  Congress.  I  recommend  myself  to 
you  to  be  exchanged.  I  say  nothing  to  you  of  my 
prison,  which  there  is  nothing  like  in  Algiers.  I  have 
lost  between  Mr.  Lord  and  myself  in  slaves,  animals, 
goods  and  utensils,  nine  thousand  piastres.  I  hope 
that  your  Excellency  will  have  regard  for  our  fami 
lies  and  will  cause  them  to  receive  some  aid  by  the  way 
of  Mr.  De  Feive,  merchant  of  Montreal,  who  could 
give  his  orders  to  M.  Cerre',  a  merchant  here.  I  have 
neither  a  good  pen  nor  any  other  paper.  Your  Excel 
lency  will  excuse  a  prisoner  who  writes  upon  his 
knees.  Sick  as  he  is,  the  time  has  come  when  he  must 
depart  from  the  country."* 

Just  before  Montgomery's  departure,  Captain 
Bowman  returned  to  Kaskaskia  from  Cahokia,  leaving 
a  guard  at  the  last  mentioned  place  on  account  of  its 
remoteness  from  the  other  towns,  and  because  the  In- 

*  Rocheblave  to  Carleton  Aug.  3,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  (See  Mason's  Early  Chicago  and  Illinois,  pp.  418, 
419.)  But  Rocheblave,  as  already  shown,  was  not  sent  a 
prisoner  to  Congress,  but  to  the  Virginia  authorities.  (As 
to  Rocheblave  being  conducted  to  Williamsburg,  see  Appen 
dix,  Note  LIII.) 


138        HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

dians,  not  far  away,  were  constantly  receiving  sup 
plies  from  the  British.* 

Clark  now  commenced  raising  recruits  in  the  set 
tlements.  Many  of  the  young  people  seemed  fond  of 
the  service,  and  "the  different  companies  soon  got 
complete."  At  Cahokia,  where  the  stone  building  — 
really  a  fortification,  as  already  suggested  —  had  been 
taken  possession  of  and  named  "Fort  Bowman,"  was 
a  garrison  to  be  commanded  by  Captain  Bowman ;  one 
was  also  formed  at  Kaskaskia  to  occupy  Fort  Clark,  as 
Fort  Gage  was  now  named, f  and  was  put  in  charge 
of  Captain  John  Williams.  In  Vincennes,  Fort  Sack- 
ville  was  still  in  possession  of  the  local  militia  with  the 
American  flag  flying  over  the  fortification ;  but,  as  will 
hereafter  be  shown,  the  command  of  the  post  was  soon 
turned  over  to  one  of  Clark's  officers. 

Now  that  the  Colonel  had  arranged  matters  so  far 
as  the  military  was  concerned  to  the  best  of  his  ability, 
he  next  gave  his  attention  to  Indian  affairs.  This  was 
of  great  importance,  as  there  were  a  number  of  na 
tions  to  the  northward  and  northeastward  that  would 
be,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  a  menace  to  him,  as  many 
of  them  were  already  at  war  on  the  side  of  Great  Brit 
ain  against  the  United  States.  But  the  friendship  of 
the  French  and  the  Spaniards  to  the  "Big  Knives" 
confused  them.  They  counseled  with  the  French 
traders  to  know  what  they  had  better  do  now  that  the 
American  flag  was  flying  at  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia. 

*  See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,   Note  LIII,  just  cited. 

f  The  earliest  information  of  the  changing  the  name 
of  Fort  Gage  to  Fort  Clark  is  found  in  the  so-called  "Bow 
man's  Journal"  (March  15,  1779).  As  to  particulars  con 
cerning  this  Journal  see  Note  CXXXII,  in  Appendix  to  our 
narrative. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       139 

These  traders  were  not  slow  in  advising  them  to  make 
peace  with  the  Virginians.  Three  tribes  —  the  three 
nearest  to  the  Illinois  towns  —  did  so  at  once;  they 
were  the  Kaskaskias,  the  Peorias,  and  the  Michi- 
gamies. 

It  was  the  opinion  of  Clark  that  Indian  treaties  (as 
before  that  time  conducted)  had  not  been  carried  on 
by  the  whites  in  a  proper  manner ;  —  soft  speeches  and 
presents,  in  his  judgment,  should  give  place  to  a  stern 
demeanor  and  a  fearless  attitude,  to  be  tempered  with 
kindness  only  when  an  exhibition  of  it  would  tend  to 
conciliate.  "It  may  appear  otherwise  to  you,"  said  the 
Colonel,  in  writing  to  a  friend,  some  months  after, 
"but  I  always  thought  we  took  the  wrong  method  of 
treating  with  Indians,  and  I  strove  as  soon  as  possible 
to  make  myself  acquainted  with  the  French  and  Span 
ish  mode,  which  must  be  preferable  to  ours,  otherwise 
they  could  not  possibly  have  such  great  influence 
among  them.  When  thoroughly  acquainted  with  it, 
it  exactly  coincided  with  my  own  idea,  and  I  resolved 
to  follow  that  same  rule  as  near  as  circumstances 
would  permit."* 

In  after  years,  Clark  wrote:  "I  had  always  been 
convinced  that  our  general  conduct  with  the  Indians 
was  wrong ;  that  inviting  them  to  treaties  was  consid 
ered  by  them  in  a  different  manner  to  what  we  ex 
pected,  and  imputed  by  them  to  fear ;  and  that  giving 
them  presents  confirmed  it.  I  resolved  to  guard 
against  this,  and  I  took  good  pains  to  make  myself 
acquainted  fully  with  the  French  and  Spanish  methods 
of  treating  Indians,  and  with  the  manners,  genius  and 
disposition  of  the  Indians  in  general.  As  in  this  quar- 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  38. 


140       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

ter  [the  Illinois]  they  had  not  yet  been  spoiled  by  us, 
I  was  resolved  that  they  should  not  be."* 

The  Colonel  soon  held  a  great  council  at  Cahokia. 
"It  was  with  astonishment,"  he  says,  "that  we  viewed 
the  amazing  number  of  savages  that  soon  flocked  into 
the  town  of  Cahokia  to  treat  for  peace  and  to  hear 
what  the  'Big  Knives'  had  to  say ;  —  many  of  them 
came  from  five  hundred  miles  distant."  There  were 
Chippewas,  Ottawas,  Pottawattamies,  Winnebagoes, 
Sacs  and  Foxes,  and  a  number  of  other  nations, f  all 
being  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  many  of  them  at  war 
against  the  Americans.  Clark  "was  under  some  ap 
prehension  among  such  a  number  of  devils;"  and  it 
proved  to  be  just,  for  the  second  or  third  night,  a 
party  of  Winnebagoes  and  others  endeavored  to  force 
by  the  guards  into  his  lodgings  to  bear  him  off,  but 
were  happily  detected  and  made  prisoners  by  the 
alacrity  of  the  sergeant.  The  town  took  the  alarm 
and  was  immediately  under  arms,  which  convinced  the 
savages  that  the  French  were  in  the  American  in 
terest. 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p. 
131.  It  is  evident  that  Clark  exaggerates  somewhat  as  to 
his  preparations  to  deal  with  the  savages,  as,  from  what 
follows,  it  is  certain  he  had  not  time  to  accomplish  so 
much  before  entering  upon  negotiations  with  them.  One 
of  his  assertions,  however,  throws  light  upon  what  is  not 
sufficiently  explained  in  his  letter  to  Mason;  and  that  is, 
that  he  was  opposed  to  inviting  Indians  to  treaties. 

t  For  "Chippewas,"  Clark  writes  "Chipoways ;"  for 
"Ottawas,"  he  gives  "Ottowas;"  for  "Pottawattamies,'  he 
has  "Petawatomies."  Instead  of  "Winnebagoes,"  he  gives 
the  more  ancient  name  of  "Puans."  He  has  "Sayges"  which 
is  but  a  synonym  for  "Sacs."  "Tanways"  are  given,  but 
these  were  "Ottawas."  He  writes  "Mawmies"  for  "Miamies" 
or  "Miamis." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       141 

The  Colonel  was  determined  to  follow  the  princi 
ple  he  had  at  first  acted  upon,  which  was,  to  show  a 
bold  and  fearless  front  to  the  savages ;  he  therefore 
immediately  ordered  the  principal  chiefs  to  be  put  in 
irons  by  the  French  militia.  But  the  former  insisted 
that  it  was  only  to  see  whether  the  French  would  take 
part  with  the  Americans  or  not;  that  they  had  no  ill 
design.  This  treatment  of  some  of  their  greatest 
chiefs  caused  great  confusion  among  the  assembled 
Indians.  The  prisoners,  with  great  submission,  so 
licited  to  speak  to  the  Colonel,  but  were  refused. 
They  then  made  all  the  effort  they  possibly  could  with 
the  other  Indians  (who  were  much  at  a  loss  to  do,  as 
there  were  strong  guards  through  every  quarter  of  the 
town)  to  get  to  speak  to  him;  but  he  told  the  whole 
that  he  believed  they  were  a  set  of  villians,  that  they 
had  joined  the  English,  and  that  they  were  welcome 
to  continue  in  the  cause  they  had  espoused,  but  that 
he  (Clark)  was  a  man  and  a  warrior;  that  he  did  not 
care  who  was  his  friends  or  foes ;  and  that  he  had  no 
more  to  say  to  them.  Such  conduct,  by  the  Colonel, 
alarmed  the  whole  town;  but  he  was  sensible  that  it 
would  gain  him  no  more  enemies  than  he  had  already ; 
and  that,  if  they  afterward  solicited  for  terms,  it  would 
be  more  sincere,  and  probably  have  a  lasting  good  ef 
fect  on  the  Indian  nations.  Distrust  was  visible  in 
the  countenance  of  almost  every  person  during  the 
latter  part  of  the  day. 

To  show  the  Indians  that  he  disregarded  them, 
Clark  remained  in  his  lodging  in  the  town  about  one 
hundred  yards  from  the  fort,  seemingly  without  a 
guard ;  but  he  kept  fifty  men  concealed  in  a  parlor  ad 
joining,  and  the  garrison  under  arms.  During  the 
night  there  was  great  counselling  among  the  savages. 


142       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

But  to  make  them  have  the  greater  idea  of  his  indif 
ference  about  them,  he  assembled  a  number  of  gentle 
men  and  ladies  and  danced  nearly  the  whole  night. 
In  the  morning  he  summoned  the  different  nations  to 
a  grand  council. 

As  a  preliminary,  Clark  released  the  chiefs  he  had 
ironed  and  invited  them  to  attend  the  meeting,  that 
he  might  speak  to  them  in  presence  of  the  whole  as 
semblage.  After  the  usual  ceremonies  were  over,  he 
produced  a  bloody  belt  of  wampum  and  made  a  speech 
upon  it. 

"I  told  the  chiefs  that  were  guilty,"  says  the  Col 
onel,  "that  I  was  sensible  their  nation  was  engaged  in 
favor  of  the  English,  and  if  they  thought  it  right,  I  did 
not  blame  them  for  it,  and  exhorted  them  to  behave 
like  men  and  support  the  cause  they  had  undertaken; 
that  I  was  sensible  that  the  English  were  weak  and 
wanted  help ;  that  I  scorned  to  take  any  advantage  of 
them  by  persuading  their  friends  to  desert  them ;  that 
there  were  no  people  but  Americans  but  would  put 
them  to  death  for  their  late  behavior ;  and  that  it  con 
vinced  me  of  their  being  my  enemies." 

"But  it  was  beneath  the  character  of  Americans," 
continued  Clark,  "to  take  such  revenge ;  that  they 
were  at  liberty  to  do  as  they  pleased,  but  they  should 
behave  like  men  and  not  do  any  mischief  until  three 
days  after  they  left  the  town ;  that  I  should  have  them 
escorted  safely  out  of  the  village,  and  after  that  expi 
ration  of  time,  if  they  did  not  choose  to  return  and 
fight  me,  they  might  find  Americans  enough  by  going 
farther." 

And  the  Colonel  added  "that  if  they  did  not  want 
their  own  worriWi  and  children  massacred,  they  must 
leave  off  killing  ours  and  only  fight  men  under  arms, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      143 

which  was  commendable ;  that  there  was  the  war  belt : 
we  should  soon  see  which  of  us  would  make  it  the 
most  bloody.  I  then  told  them  it  was  customary 
among  all  brave  men  to  treat  their  enemies  well  when 
assembled  as  we  were;  that  I  should  give  them  pro 
visions  and  rum  while  they  staid ;  but,  by  their  be 
havior,  I  could  not  conceive  that  they  deserved  that 
appellation,  and  I  did  not  care  how  soon  they  left  me 
after  that  day."* 

Clark  observed  that  their  countenances  and  atti 
tude  favored  his  real  design ;  for  the  whole  looked  like 
a  parcel  of  criminals.  The  other  nations  rose  and 
made  many  submissive  speeches,  excusing  themselves 
for  their  conduct  in  a  very  pretty  manner.  The  Col 
onel  thought  there  was  something  noble  in  their  senti 
ments.  They  alleged  that  they  were  persuaded  to  war 
by  the  English  and  made  to  harbor  a  wrong  opinion  of 
the  Americans ;  but  they  now  believed  them  to  be  war 
riors  and  could  wish  to  take  them  by  the  hand  as 
brothers ;  that  they  did  not  speak  from  their  lips  only, 
but  that  the  American  commander  would  find  that 
they  spoke  from  their  hearts ;  and  that  they  hoped  he 
would  pity  their  blindness  and  their  women  and  chil 
dren.  They  also  solicited  pardon  for  their  friends  that 
had  been  guilty  of  the  late  crime. 

The  Colonel  told  them  he  had  instructions  from 
the  Great  Man  of  the  Big  Knives  not  to  ask  peace 
from  any  people,  but  to  offer  peace  and  war  and  let 
them  take  their  choice,  except  a  few  of  the  worst 
nations  to  whom  he  was  to  grant  no  peace ;  for,  as  the 
English  could  fight  no  longer,  he  was  fearful  his 
young  warriors  would  get  rusty  without  they  could 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  44. 


144       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

find  somebody  to  fight.  He  then  presented  them  with 
a  peace  belt  and  a  war  belt,  and  told  them  to  take  their 
choice,  —  excepting*  those  who  had  been  imprisoned. 
They,  with  a  great  deal  of  seeming  joy,  took  the  belt 
of  peace.  Clark  then  told  them  he  would  defer  smok 
ing  the  peace  pipe  until  he  heard  that  they  had  called 
in  all  their  warriors,  and  then  he  would  conclude  a 
treaty  with  all  the  ceremony  necessary  for  so  import 
ant  an  occasion. 

The  savages  immediately  solicited  of  Clark  some 
persons  to  go  with  them  to  be  witnesses  of  their  con 
duct  ;  and  they  hoped  the  Colonel  would  favor  their 
guilty  friends.  But  this  the  American  commander  re 
fused,  by  which  he  was  pleased  to  see  them  set 
trembling  as  persons  frightened  at  the  apprehension 
of  the  worst  fate.  Their  speaker  then  rose  and  made 
a  most  lamentable  speech  (such  as  Clark  wished  for) 
begging  mercy  for  their  women  and  children ;  for  the 
French  gentlemen  of  Cahokia  had  given  them  lessons 
that  favored  the  Colonel's  purpose.  Clark  recom 
mended  them  to  go  to  their  English  father,  who  had 
told  them  he  was  strong ;  perhaps  he  might  help  them, 
as  he  had  promised ;  that  they  could  blame  no  person 
but  themselves  when  they  should,  with  the  English, 
be  given  to  the  dogs  to  eat. 

When  the  Indian  orators  had  tried  their  eloquence 
to  no  purpose,  they  pitched  on  two  young  men  to  be  put 
to  death  as  an  atonement  for  the  rest,  hoping  that  would 
pacify  Clark.  It  was  surprising  to  see  how  submis 
sively  the  two  presented  themselves  to  suffer  for  their 
friends,  —  "advancing  into  the  middle  of  the  floor, 
sitting  down  by  each  other,  and  covering  their  heads 
with  their  blankets  to  receive  the  tomahawk." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       145 

This  submission  at  once  conciliated  the  Colonel. 
"For  a  few  moments,"  he  declares,  "I  was  so  agitated 
that  I  do  not  doubt  but  I  should,  without  reflection, 
have  killed  the  first  man  that  would  have  offered  to 
hurt  them."*  It  is  needless  to  say  the  two  were  not 
tomahawked. 

Clark  obtained  such  a  treaty  as  he  wished  for,  con 
firmed  by  all  present;  for  peace  with  all  the  savages 
was  what  he  wanted,  if  it  could  be  secured  on  his  own 
terms.  He  came  to  an  understanding  with  represent 
atives  of  not  less  than  ten  nations.  This  carried 
American  influence,  for  the  time,  far  up  the  Missis 
sippi,  and  up  the  Illinois  to  the  very  borders  of  Lake 
Michigan,  —  five  tribes,  the  Winnebagoes,  Sacs, 
Foxes,  Pottawattamies  and  Miamies,  having  pre 
viously  received  presents  from  the  English  and  taken 
up  the  hatchet  against  the  Americans. f 

"In  a  short  time,"  Clark  subsequently  wrote  con 
cerning  the  negotiations  with  the  Indians  at  Cahokia 
at  that  period,  and  what  followed  immediately  there 
after,  "our  influence  reached  the  Indians  on  the  St. 
Joseph  and  the  border  of  Lake  Michigan.  The 

*Id.,  pp.  44-46.  Dillon  in  copying  Clark's  Memoir  is 
silent  as  to  this  whole  transact'on;  but  Butler  (History  of 
Kentucky,  pp.  72-75)  gives  the  particulars,  although,  in 
some  instances,  varying  considerably  from  Clark  in  his 
letter  to  Mason,  which,  as  it  is  nearly  contemporary  with 
the  event  related,  is  the  better  authority.  (As  to  Butler's 
account,  see  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  LIV.) 

f  Patrick  Henry  to  the  Virginia  Delegates  in  Congress, 
Nov.  14,  1778.  (See  Butler's  Kentucky  (2d  ed.),  p.  532; 
also  Tyler's  Life  of  Patrick  Henry,  p.  230,  231;  and  Henry's 
Patrick  Henry,  vol.  II,  p.  16  and  vol.  Ill,  p.  200.) 

10 


146       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

French  gentlemen,  at  the  different  posts  that  we  now 
had  possession  of,  engaged  warmly  in  our  interest. 
They  appeared  to  vie  with  each  other  in  promoting 
the  business;  and  through  the  means  of  their  corre 
spondence,  trading  among  the  Indians,  and  otherwise, 
in  a  short  time  the  Indians  of  the  various  tribes  in 
habiting  the  region  of  the  Illinois,  came  in  great  num 
bers  to  Cahokia,  in  order  to  make  treaties  of  peace 
with  us.  From  the  information  they  generally  got 
from  the  French  gentlemen  (whom  they  implicitly 
believed)  respecting  us,  they  were  truly  alarmed;  and, 
consequently  we  were  visited  by  the  greater  part  of 
them,  without  any  invitation  from  us :  of  course  we 
had  greatly  the  advantage,  in  making  use  of  such 
language  as  suited  our  interest.  Those  treaties,  which 
commenced  about  the  last  of  August,  and  continued 
between  three  and  four  weeks,  were  probably  con 
ducted  in  a  way  different  from  any  other  known  in 
America  at  that  time."  He  declares  he  began  the 
business  fully  prepared,  having  copies  of  British 
treaties  in  his  possession.* 

Clark  did  not  fail  to  make  the  most  of  his  success. 
"I  sent,"  he  declares,  "agents  into  every  quarter."  To 
a  chief  of  the  Winnebagoes,  he  gave  this  writing  as  a 
pledge  of  his  friendship: 

*  Clark's  Memoir.  The  writer  (already  cited)  in  the 
North  American  Review,  vol.  XLIII,  p.  21,  says,  concerning 
these  treaties :  "By  means  of  such  cautious  management 
[as  employed  by  the  Colonel  of  Cahokia  in  his  dealing  with 
the  savages  there]  Clark  succeeded  in  undermining  the  British 
influence  among  the  Indian  tribes  from  the  Mississippi  to  the 
Lakes,  and  impressing  them  with  a  respect  for  the  Americans 
hitherto  unknown."  But  this  "undermining,"  among  many 
of  the  tribes,  proved,  it  may  be  promised,  of  short  duration. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       147 

"By  George  Rogers  Clark,  Esq.,  Colonel  and  Com 
mandant  of  the  Eastern  Illinois  and  its  Dependencies, 
etc,  etc.,  etc. 

"Whereas  Courachon,  Chief  of  the  Puans  [Win- 
nebagoes],  and  his  nation  living  at  the  Rock  river 
have  entered  into  alliance  and  friendship  with  the 
United  States  of  America,  and  promised  to  be  true 
and  faithful  subjects  to  the  same ; 

"In  consequence  whereof,  I  have  given  him  this 
writing  as  a  remembrance  that  he  and  his  said  nation 
are  to  treat  all  the  subjects  of  the  said  States  of  Amer 
ica  with  friendship  and  receive  all  those  they  may 
meet  with  as  their  brothers. 

"Given  under  my  hand  and  seal  at  Fort  Bowman, 
in  the  Illinois,  this  22d  Aug't,  1778. 

G.  R.  CLARK,     [Seal]" 

And,  in  nearly  the  same  words,  as  will  be  seen,  he 
afterward  gladdened  the  heart  of  a  Fox  chief: 

"By  George  Rogers  Clark,  Esq.,  Colonel  of  .the 
Virginia  troops  and  Comamndant  of  the  Eastern  Illi 
nois  and  its  Dependencies : 

"Whereas,  Kinaytounak  [written,  also,  Kindi- 
nack] ,  a  chief  of  the  Fox  nation  of  Indians,  has  en 
tered  into  a  friendly  alliance  with  the  United  States  of 
America  and  promised  to  be  a  true  and  faithful  sub 
ject  thereto;  — 

"In  consideration  of  this,  I  give  him  this  writing 
as  a  remembrance,  he  agreeing  that  he  and  his  nation 
will  treat  all  the  subjects  of  the  said  States  with 
friendship,  and  receive  them  at  all  times  as  their 
brothers. 


148       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"Given  under  my  hand  and  seal,  at  Fort  Bowman, 
in  Cahokia,  this  28th  day  of  August,  1778. 

"G.  R.  CLARK. 

"[Seal]."* 

Much  fatigued  because  of  his  labor  with  the  In 
dians,  Clark,  after  about  five  weeks  absence,  returned 
to  Kaskaskia.  He  left  Captain  Bowman  not  only  in 
charge  of  the  garrison  but  of  affairs  generally  at  Ca 
hokia.  In  attending  to  matters  in  which  he  was  en 
trusted,  the  Colonel  declares  the  Captain  "did  himself 
much  honor." 

On  arriving  at  Kaskaskia,  Clark  found  everything 
as  well  as  he  could  have  expected.  Afterward,  "the 
great  Blackbird,  Chippewa  chief.  .  .  sent  a  belt  of 
peace  to  Colonel  Clark,  influenced,  he  [the  Colonel] 
supposes,  by  the  dread  of  Detroit's  being  reduced  by 
American  arms."f  It  seems  that,  subsequently,  the 
American  commander  sought  an  interview  with  this 
Indian  and  obtained  from  him  every  assurance  of  fu 
ture  friendship;  but,  what  promised  much  because  of 
the  chief's  power  over  his  nation,  proved,  in  the  end, 
of  little  value,  on  account  of  British  influence. 

*  Haldimand  MSS.  But,  it  may  be  said,  both  these 
chiefs  soon  returned  to  their  British  allegilance,  giving  over 
these  tokens  to  the  English.  (See  concerning  Clark's  Council 
with  the  Indian  tribes  at  Cahokia,  Appendix,  Note  LV.) 

t  Patrick  Henry  to  the  Virginia  Delegates  in  Congress, 
Nov.  14,  1778.  Blackbird's  interview  (for  this,  it  is  claimed, 
actually  took  place)  with  Clark,  is  described  with  minuteness 
by  Butler  in  his  History  of  Kentucky  (see  Appendix  to  our 
narrative,  Note  LVI).  But  his  assertion  that  the  conference 
was  the  result  of  Clark  having  first  made  advances  to  the 
chief,  is  clearly  erroneous. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       149 

Having  now  "fixed  matters"  so  as  to  enable  him  to 
have  "a  moment's  leisure/'  the  Colonel  gave  his  af 
fairs  deeper  reflection  than  he  had  before  attempted. 
His  situation  and  weakness  convinced  him  that  more 
depended  on  his  own  behavior  and  conduct  than  on  all 
the  troops  under  his  command  —  far  removed  as  they 
were,  from  the  body  of  his  country,  and  among  French, 
Spaniards  and  numerous  bands  of  Indians ;  all  watch 
ing  his  actions,  and  ready  to  receive  impressions  favor 
able  or  otherwise  of  the  Americans,  which  might  be 
hard  to  remove  and  which  would,  perhaps,  produce 
lasting  good  or  ill  effects.  It  was  now  that  he  saw  his 
work  was  only  begun;  and  he  naturally  examined, 
every  circumstance  that  had  transpired  since  leaving 
Williamsburg,  fixing  upon  proper  resolutions,  so  that 
if  misfortune  or  loss  of  interest  should  come,  it  might 
be  chargeable  to  want  of  judgments  only. 

It  was,  as  the  Colonel  looked  upon  it,  of  the  great 
est  consequence  to  have  strict  subordination  among 
his  troops  and  this  he  soon  effected.  It  gave  him 
much  pleasure  to  harrangue  them  on  parade,  all  "raw 
and  undisciplined"  as  they  were.  He  told  them  of  his 
resolutions  and  the  necessity  of  strict  duty  as  a  means 
of  their  own  preservation.  They  returned  answer  that 
it  was  their  zeal  for  their  country  that  induced  them 
to  engage  in  the  service;  that  they  were  sensible  of 
their  situation  and  danger  and  that  nothing  could  con 
duce  more  to  their  safety  and  happiness  than  good  or 
der,  which  they  would  try  to  adhere  to,  and  they  hoped 
that  no  favor  would  be  shown  those  who  would  neg 
lect  it.  In  a  short  time,  his  garrison  in  Fort  Clark, 
was  in  a  high  state  of  efficiency  —  "perhaps,"  declares 
the  enthusiastic  commander,  "no  garrison  could  boast 
of  better  order  or  of  a  more  valuable  set  of  men." 


150       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Clark  now  became  aware  that  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor  Hamilton  at  Detroit,  finding  British  influence  on 
the  wane  among  many  of  the  Indian  nations,  was 
sending  out  messengers  through  their  country  (so  far 
as  they  dare  venture)  to  awaken  a  renewed  spirit  in 
them  for  the  cause  of  Britain.  But  he  felt  assured 
that  that  officer  was  redoubling  his  presents  and  in 
sinuations  to  little  purpose;  as  he  (the  Colonel)  had  a 
number  of  persons  well  acquainted  with  the  Indians  he 
had  treated  with,  to  reside  among  them ;  and  he  had 
spies  continually  in  and  about  Detroit  for  some  time. 
However,  the  American  commander  under  estimated 
the  potency  of  Hamilton's  Indian  diplomacy  and  of 
his  largeness  dealt  out  with  a  liberal  hand.*  Besides, 
there  were  many  tribes  to  the  eastward  and  north 
ward  of  the  Wabash  and  Illinois  rivers  that  had  not 
made  treaties  with  the  Colonel  and  were  now  in  close 
alliance  with  the  British  —  closer,  in  fact,  than  he 
thought  possible,  or,  at  least,  had  knowledge  of. 

Clark  spared  no  effort  within  his  reach  to  concil 
iate  the  Illinois  people  and  by  so  doing  to  bring  them 
heartily  to  espouse  American  interests.  "They,"  he 
said,  "know  no  other  kind  of  government  than  what 
might  be  expected  from  the  lust  of  power,  pride  and 
avarice  of  the  officers  commanding  in  that  country, 
whose  will  was  a  law  to  the  whole  and  certain  destruc 
tion  to  those  who  disobeyed  the  most  trifling  com 
mand,  —  nothing  could  have  been  more  to  my  advan 
tage,  as  I  could  temper  the  government  as  I  pleased; 
and  every  new  privilege  appeared  to  them  as  fresh 
laurels  to  the  American  cause. 

*  But  the  Lieutenant  Governor  never  offered  a  stated 
reward  for  scalps.  (See  History  of  the  Girtys,  pp.  65,  69,  70.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      151 

"I,  by  degrees,  laid  aside  every  unnecessary  re 
striction  they  labored  under.  As  I  was  convinced 
that  it  was  the  mercenary  views  of  their  former  gov 
ernors  that  established  these  restrictions,  paying  no 
regard  to  the  happiness  of  the  people  and  those  cus 
toms,  which,  when  strictly  observed,  was  most  con 
ducive  to  good  order,  I  made  it  a  point  to  guard  the 
happiness  and  tranquility  of  the  inhabitants,  suppos 
ing  that  their  happy  change  reaching  the  ears  of  their 
brothers  and  countrymen  on  the  lakes  and  about  De 
troit,  would  be  paving  my  way  to  that  place  and  have  a 
good  effect  on  the  Indians.  I  soon  found  it  had  the 
desired  effect,  for  the  greatest  part  of  the  French  gen 
tlemen  and  traders  among  the  Indians  declared  for  us ; 
and  many  letters  of  congratulation  were  sent  from 
Detroit  to  the  gentlemen  of  the  Illinois,  which  gave 
me  much  pleasure."* 

Between  the  American  commander  in  Kaskaskia 
and  Don  Leyba  at  St.  Louis,  there  was  the  most  cor 
dial  understanding.  The  Spanish  Lieutenant-Gov 
ernor  omitted  nothing  in  his  power  to  prove  his  at 
tachment  to  the  Americans;  and  this,  too,  with  such 
openness  as  to  leave  no  doubt  of  his  sincerity.  "As  I 
was  never  before  in  the  company  of  a  Spanish  gentle 
man,"  says  Clark,  "I  was  much  surprised.  Instead  of 
finding  that  reserve  thought  peculiar  to  that  nation, 
I  here  saw  not  the  least  symptom  of  it.  Freedom  al 
most  to  excess  gave  me  the  greatest  pleasure."f 

'There  lately  arrived  from  New  Orleans,  wrote  the 
Colonel  to  Governor  Henry,  the  middle  of  September, 

*  Clark  to  Mason.  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp. 
49,  50. 

fid.,  pp.  46,  47.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note 
LVII.) 


152       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.   . 

"dispatches  from  the  Governor  General  to  Mr.  Leyba, 
Lietitenant-Governor,  residing  at  St.  Louis,  which 
[dispatches]  brought,  [contained]  a  parcel  for  the 
Commercial  Committee  and  Congress,  with  instruc 
tions  to  send  it  by  express,  except  it  could  be  given 
into  the  hands  of  an  officer  belonging  to  the  States.  A 
few  days  ago,  I  received  these  letters  from  Mr.  Leyba, 
who  requested  that  I  would  .send  them  immediately, 
as  he  says  they  are  of  importance  and  require  expedi 
tion.  Having  a  fit  person  [William  Meyers],  I  have 
dispatched  him  with  orders  to  make  no  delay  until  he 
arrives  at  Williamsburg.  This  express  answers  my 
purpose  very  well  as  an  opportunity  of  informing 
you  of  what  has  past  in  this  country  since  my  last  let- 
ers  to  you  by  Captain  Montgomery,  which  I  hope  you 
have  received." 

"Mr.  Leyba,"  continues  Clark,  "requested  of  me 
that  I  would,  by  letters,  present  his  compliments  to 
you.  This  gentleman  interests  himself  much  in  favor 
of  the  States  —  more  so  than  I  could  have  expected. 
He  has  offered  me  all  the  force  that  he  could  raise  in 
case  of  an  attack  by  the  Indians  from  Detroit,  as  there 
is  now  no  danger  from  any  other  quarter."* 

*  Clark  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  Sept.  16,  1778. 
(Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  Ill,  p.  194.) 


CHAPTER  IX. 

BY  the  middle  of  January,  1778,  Hamilton  was 
enabled  to  inform  Governor  Carleton  of  the 
general  success  of  his  war  parties  sent  out 
from  Detroit ;  but  in  March,  he  wrote :  ''I  am  humbly 
of  the  opinion  that  it  must  be  impossible  for  the  Wa- 
bash  Indians  to  be  kept  in  order  without  a  vast  ex 
pense  in  presents,  or  the  presence  of  some  troops.  In 
deed,  in  all  those  posts  where  the  French  had  settled  a 
trade  and  intercourse  with  the  savages,  an  officer's 
presence,  with  troops,  is  much  wanted ;  for  the  minds 
of  the  Indians  in  remote  posts  are  poisoned  by  the 
falsehoods  and  misrepresentations  of  the  French.  As 
to  the  Indians  of  the  Wabash,  they  have  been  out  of 
the  way  of  knowing  the  power  of  the  English ;  and, 
from  a  presumption  of  their  own  importance,  will  be 
arrogant  and  troublesome."  However,  he  was  grati 
fied  with  the  appearance  of  a  large  body  of  warriors 
—  Mingoes,  Shawanese  and  Delawares  —  but,  as  they 
had  with  them  their  wives  and  children,  of  course  they 
were  not  ready  to  go  upon  the  war-path  against  the 
Americans.  'The  savages,"  he  wrote  on  the  ninth  of 
June,  "will,  in  a  few  days,  meet  in  Council."*  And 
that  Council  proved  to  be  one  of  the  largest  ever  held 
with  Indians  in  the  West.  It  was  opened  at  Detroit 
on  the  fourteenth.  There  were  sixteen  hundred  and 
eighty-three  Indians  of  both  sexes  present  —  Ottawas 
and  Chippewas,  Wyandots  and  Pottawattamies,  Dela 
wares  and  Shawanese,  Miamis  and  Mingoes  (the  latter 

*  Haldimand  MSS. 

(153) 


154       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

consisting  of  Mohawks  and  Senecas)  ;  also  Kickapoos, 
Weas  and  Mascoutins.* 

The  burden  of  Governor  Hamilton's  speeches,  to 
the  large  assemblage  of  Indians  was  an  urgent  re 
quest  that  the  good  feeling  of  the  year  previous  might 
be  continued  between  them  and  his  government,  — 
made  effective,  upon  the  occasion,  by  a  liberal  bestowal 
of  presents.  The  responses  of  the  Indian  orators  were 
all  re-assuring.  So  the  claim  of  friendship  was 
brightened  between  them ;  war  axes  were  given  anew 
and  sharpened ;  war  songs  were  sung ;  and  war  dances 
danced.  On  the  seventeenth  of  June,  it  is  recorded: 
"Some  Delawares  are  this  day  arrived,  who  are  de 
sirous  of  showing  their  intention  of  joining  their 
brethren,  and  have  presented  me  [Hamilton]  two 
pieces  of  dried  meat  (scalps)  ;  one  of  which,  I  have 
given  to  the  Chippeways,  the  other  to  the  Miamis,  that 
they  may  show  in  their  villages  the  disposition  of  the 
Delawares."  There  is  no  possibility  of  mistaking  this 
brutality ;  nor  can  it  be  denied  that  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor,  by  this  deed  placed  himself  upon  record  as 
acting  in  a  manner  at  once  barbarous  and  blood- 
thirsty.f 

*  British  interests  were  represented  by  Lieutenant  Gover 
nor  Hamilton;  Lieutenant  Governor  Abbott  (recently,  as  we 
have  seen,  from  Vincennes)  ;  Jehu  Hay,  Indian  Agent;  Alex 
ander  McKee  (a  Tory  who  had  fled  from  Pittsburgh)  ;  Cap 
tain  Lernoult  and  Lieutenant  Caldwell,  of  the  King's  regiment ; 
William  Tucker,  Joseph  Drouilland,  Isidore  Chesne,  Duperon 
Baby,  and  Charles  Beaubien,  Interpreters. 

f  The  Record  of  the  Council  is  a  long  one.  There  were 
meetings  on  the  14th,  15th,  17th,  18th,  19th,  20th  and  29th  of 
June,  and  on  the  3d  of  July.  Little  did  Hamilton  imagine, 
at  its  close,  that  a  hardy  band  of  "rebels"  was  even  then 
rapidly  approaching  Kaskaskia  to  nullify,  as  the  events  after- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       155 

The  latter  part  of  June  General  Frederick  Haldi- 
man  reached  Quebec,*  the  successor  of  Carleton  as 
Governor  of  the  Province  and  Commander-in-Chief  of 
the  troops  therein. f  But  it  was  a  long  distance  from 
that  town  to  Detroit,  and  of  necessity  the  news  of  his 
arrival  was  unknown  to  Hamilton  for  a  considerable 
time. 

In  midsummer,  there  was  a  flying  report  at  Detroit 
indicating  that  French  and  Spanish  emissaries  had 
been  at  St.  Joseph,  with  belts  and  messages  for  the 
Pottawattamies  at  that  place.lj:  "Every  intelligence," 
wrote  Hamilton  to  Carleton,  "confirms  what  I  had  the 
honor  to  mention  to  your  Excellencey  about  a  year 
since,  that  the  Spaniards  are  doing  their  utmost  to 
alienate  the  savages,  by  promises  and  presents.  By 
Mr.  Rocheblave's  letter  to  me,  it  appears  that,  hitherto, 
they  have  not  gained  their  good  will  or  confidence."§ 

wards  disclosed,  a  good  share  of  the  proceedings  of  his 
Council. 

*  Haldimand  to  Germain,  June  30,  1778,  from  Quebec.  — 
Haldimand  MSS. 

t  Germain  to  Haldimand,  Aug.  7,  1777. — Haldimand  MSS. 
The  Province  of  which  General  Haldimand  was  appointed 
governor,  was,  of  course,  that  of  Quebec ;  and,  as  Com 
mander-in-chief  therein,  his  authority  in  a  military  (as  well 
as  civil)  way  extended  over  all  the  West,  except,  strictly 
speaking,  the  country  (Kentucky)  south  of  the  Ohio.  The 
General  came  to  America  first  in  1757  as  Lieutenant  Colonel ; 
was  in  the  French  and  Indian  War,  being  in  Amherst's  army 
at  the  capture  of  Montreal ;  and  had  command  in  Florida  in 
1767. 

t  Located  on  the  right  bank  of  the  St.  Joseph  river,  of 
Lake  Michigan,  not  a  great  distance  below  the  site  of  the 
present  city  of  South  Bend,  Indiana. 

§  Hamilton  to  Carleton,  August  6,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


156       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Two  days  after  sending  this  information  to  Carle- 
ton,  the  Lieutenant-Governor  received  intelligence  of 
the  success  of  Clark  at  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia.  The 
news  was  of  the  most  startling  character  to  him.  He 
at  once  dispatched  expresses  with  all  possible  speed  to 
inform  the  Commander-in  Chief  at  Quebec,  Colonel 
Bolton  at  Niagara,  and  Major  DePeyster  (he  was  no 
longer  Captain)  at  Michilimackinac. 

"An  express  is  arrived  from  the  Illinois,"  is  his 
language  to  Carleton,  "with  an  account  of  the  arrival 
of  a  party  of  rebels,  in  number  about  three  hundred, 
who  have  taken  Mr.  De  Rocheblave  prisoner  —  have 
laid  him  in  irons,  and  exacted  an  oath  from  the  inhab 
itants,  binding  them  to  obedience  to  the  Congress/"' 
"There  is  an  officer,"  added  Hamilton,  "with  thirty 
men  detached  by  the  rebels  to  Cahokia  to  receive  the 
allegiance  of  that  post ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  that,  by 
this  time,  they  are  at  Vincennes,  as  when  the  express 
came  away,  one  Gibault,  a  French  priest,  had  his  horse 
ready  saddled  to  go  thither  from  Cahokia  to  receive 
the  submission  of  the  inhabitants  in  the  name  of  the  reb 
els  .  .  Monsieur  de  Celoron  sets  off  this  day  with 
belts  for  the  Wabash  Indians,  whose  deputies  went 
from  this  place  not  long  since,  well  satisfied  with  their 
reception,  and  took  along  with  them  three  war 
belts." 

"I  beg  leave  to  observe  to  your  Excellency,"  con 
tinues  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  "that,  if  the  Wabash 
Indians  are  supported  properly,  it  will  entail  a  consid 
erable  expense ;  at  the  same  time,  it  is  well  known  to 
your  Excellency  that  these  nations  are  the  only  bar 
rier  to  be  opposed  at  present  to  the  inroads  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       157 

rebels  and  the  attempts  of  the  French  and  the  Span 
iards."* 

It  was  not  long  before  the  Lieutenant-Governor 
again  wrote  Carleton.  In  speaking  of  Clark's  force, 
he  declared  that  it  was  reported  to  be  three  hundred 
strong ;  —  "but  I  cannot  think  they  are  so  numerous," 
said  he,  "since,  by  what  the  express  has  related,  it 
seems  they  are  but  a  part  of  those  marauders  who  left 
Fort  Pitt  last  January  under  the  orders  of  one  Willing, 
a  man  who  is  of  one  of  the  best  families  in  Philadel 
phia,  but  of  infamous  character  and  debauched  morals, 
a  proper  head  for  the  band  of  robbers  he  has  con 
ducted  down  the  Mississippi.  I  should  judge  that  the 
repulse  he  met  with  at  the  Natchez,  where  one  of  his 
boats  with  six  swivels  was  taken  and  thirty  of  his 
people  killed  or  taken,  joined  to  the  news  of  four  Eng 
lish  frigates  being  in  the  river's  mouth,  has  altogether 
induced  him  to  return  without  getting  ammunition  at 
New  Orleans,  which  was  probably  the  principal  object 
of  his  expedition." 

"After  having  taken  the  submission  and  oaths  of 
fidelity  from  the  inhabitants  at  Kaskaskia,"  continues 
Hamilton,  "they  sent  an  officer  and  thirty  men  to  Ca- 
hokia  to  do  the  like  there ;  and,  unless  they  fear  the 
savages,  [they]  will  probably  send  to  Vincennes  for  the 
like  purpose.  I  yesterday  sent  away  Monsieur  de 
Celoron  with  belts  and  speeches  for  the  Miamis  [lo- 

*  Hamilton  to  Carleton,  Aug.  8,  1778.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 

(For  additional  accounts,  from  the  British  side,  of  the 
treatment  accorded  Rocheblave,  see  Appendix,  Note  LVIII.) 
De  Celoron,  commandant  at  Wea,  a  post  (one  of  the  de 
pendencies  of  Detroit)  situated  upon  the  Wabash,  did  not 
leave  with  belts  for  the  Indians  there  until  the  tenth,  as 
Hamilton  the  next  day  mentioned  in  another  letter  to  Carleton. 


158       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

cated  mostly  at  the  head  of  the  Maumee]  and  Wabash 
Indians  and  a  particular  order  to  have  four  iron  can 
non  which  are  at  Vincennes  spiked  and  the  trunnions 
knocked  off;  for  if  they  [the  'rebels']  think  of  fortify 
ing  themselves  there,  the  very  name  of  cannon  would 
deter  the  Indians  from  attacking  them.''* 

Hamilton  also  again  urged  the  necessity  of  sup 
porting  the  Wabash  Indians  and  how  expedient  it 
would  be  in  case  of  a  rupture  with  the  Spaniards  to 
keep  [these]  frontier  Indians  in  good  temper,  —  "who 
will  no  doubt  be  courted  by  them."  "Their  deputies," 
he  repeated,  "who  were  lately  at  Detroit,  and  took  up 
the  ax  were  well  pleased  with  their  reception  and 
promised  to  act  with  vigor  against  the  rebels. "f 

*  Hamilton  to  Carleton,  Aug.  11,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  "Monsieur  de  Celoron  was  sent  off  directly  for  Ouia- 
tanon  [Wea]  with  belts  and  speeches  for  the  Miamis  Indians 
and  those  of  the  River  Ouabache  [Wabash].  His  orders, 
which  were  given  in  writing,  as  was  the  case  with  all  partizan 
officers,  directed  that  he  should  as  soon  as  possible  give  me 
information  of  the  dispositions  of  the  Indians;  the  number 
and,  if  possible,  the  views  of  the  rebels;  and  that  he  should 
not  fail  to  have  the  few  small  cannon  at  Fort  Sackville  spiked 
and  the  trunions  knocked  off."  —  Hamilton  to  Haldimand, 
July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 

f  Hamilton  to  Carleton  in  his  letter  of  August  llth.  It 
is  evident  that  supporting  the  Wabash  Indians  was  what  was 
uppermost  in  Hamilton's  mind  as  being  of  paramount  import 
ance  at  this  juncture.  To  effect  this  was,  to  interpose  a  bar 
rier  to  further  inroads  of  the  "rebels"  who  had  planted  them 
selves  in  the  Illinois,  and  to  thwart  all  aid  and  comfort  to  the 
enemy  that  might  be  proffered  by  the  French  and  Spaniards. 
It  is  not  improbable  that  he  saw,  if  vigorous  and  prompt 
means  were  taken  to  secure  the  active  cooperation  of  these 
tribes,  recapturing  the  Illinois  from  the  "rebels"  would  surely 
follow. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       159 

When  Hamilton  was  informed  of  the  arrival  at 
Quebec  of  General  Haldimand  he  made  it  a  point  to 
write  him.*  "As  soon  as  possible,"  he  said,  "I  shall 
have  the  honor  to  transmit  a  statement  of  this  set- 
tlemtiTjf;  and  of  the  different  posts  dependent  on  it, 
as  also  ^f  the  militia,  the  Indian  department,  volun 
teers,  and  uther  matters.  A  plan  of  the  fort,  with  the 
alterations  which  have  been  made  since  the  month  of 
November,  1775,  shall  be  prepared  and  sent  off  this 
autumn  if  possible." 

"The  Indian  nations  in  general,"  Hamilton  con 
tinued,  "who  resort  to  Detroit,  have  acted  with  great 
cheerfulness  and  unanimity.  The  Delawares  are  least 
to  be  depended  on,  though  lately  some  of  them  have 
declared  their  resolution  to  act  against  the  rebels ; 
and,  but  a  few  days  since, 'one  of  their  parties  which 
had  been  at  war  brought  in  fifteen  scalps  to  this  place." 
"Many  of  the  war  parties,"  he  further  declared,  "bring 
in  prisoners  and  have  shown  a  humanity  hitherto  un- 
practiced  among  them  ;  they  never  fail  of  a  gratuity  on 
every  proof  of  obedience  they  show  in  sparing  the 
lives  of  such  as  are  incapable  of  defending  them 
selves." 

"A  prisoner,"  the  Lieutenant-Governor  also  wrote, 
"brought  in  here  by  the  Shawanese  lately,  who  was 

*  Hamilton  had  accounts,  as  already  shown,  of  Haldi- 
mand's  arrival,  as  early  as  Aug.  11,  1778,  but  he  did  not  con 
sider  them  of  sufficient  reliability  to  risk  a  letter  to  the  new 
Commander-in-chief.  However,  on  the  fifth  of  September, 
he  wrote:  —  "Having  just  received  an  account  of  your  Ex 
cellency's  safe  arrival  at  Quebec,  I  take  the  earliest  opportunity 
of  presenting  my  dutiful  respects  and  of  congratulating  your 
Excellency  on  the  choice  his  Majesty  has  made  in  appointing 
you  to  the  distinguished  post  of  Commander-in-chief  of  this 
Province." 


160       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

taken  near  one  of  the  forts  on  the  Kentucky  river, 
tells  me  the  rebels  were  lately  reinforced  with  three 
companies,  each  of  seventy  men." 

"A  letter,"  added  Hamilton,  "sent  by  Major  De 
Peyster  from  Michilimackinac  confirms  the  account  of 
the  rebels  have  taken  possession  of  Kaskaskia  and 
Cahokia,  on  the  Mississippi.  As  to  the  Spaniards, 
however  willing  to  take  part  against  the  English,  I 
apprehend  the  depredation  of  the  rebels  in  their  neigh 
borhood  may  make  them  backward  in  encouraging 
them,  for  I  hear  that  some  Spaniards  were  at  a  con 
ference  between  some  of  the  Indians  from  St.  Joseph 
and  the  rebels  at  Kaskaskia ;  that  they  listened  to 
what  passed  without  saying  a  word  till  the  rebel 
speakers  went  away,  when  they  told  the  Indians  not  to 
listen  to  those  people,  for  they  were  unable  to  perform 
the  promises  they  had  made  them."* 

As  to  the  French  inhabitants  at  all  the  out-posts  in 
the  West  —  the  Lieutenant-Governor  had  little  confi 
dence  in  them.  "I  firmly  believe,"  were  his  words, 
"there  is  not  one  in  twenty  whose  oath  of  allegiance 
would  have  force  enough  to  bind  him  to  his  duty; 
added  to  this  [is  the  fact]  that  the  greatest  part  of  the 
traders  among  them  who  are  called  English  are  rebels 
in  their  hearts."  Hamilton  thought  it  a  most  unfor- 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand  [Sept.  5],  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  The  reinforcements  mentioned  by  the  prisoner  brought 
into  Detroit,  as  consisting  of  three  companies,  each  of  seventy 
men,  which  had  arrived  in  Kentucky,  were  the  troops  of  Clark, 
who,  of  course,  had  not  left  the  island  at  the  Falls  of  the 
Ohio  when  the  informant  was  captured.  That  the  Kentucky 
prisoner  supposed  this  force  was  really  a  reinforcement  for 
the  Kentucky  posts,  shows  how  important  it  was  that  Clark 
kept  his  real  destination  so  long  a  secret.  Clark  never  learned 
how  close  a  risk  he  ran  of  being  discovered. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       161 

tunate  circumstance  for  his  Majesty's  interest  in  the 
Illinois  that  Rocheblave  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of 
the  "rebels"  —  "his  understanding,  experience  and 
authority  over  a  troublesome  set  of  people,  rendered 
him  thoroughly  capable  of  managing  such  subjects." 

General  Haldi'mand  was  informed  further  that,  ex 
cept  the  confirmation  of  the  news  of  Clark  having  ta 
ken  possession  of  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia,  there  was  no 
intelligence  from  either  the  Illinois  or  Vincennes.  But  I 
shall  not  be  surprised,"  said  Hamilton,  "to  hear  that 
the  rebels  are  driven  away ;  nor  shall  I  be  surprised  to 
hear  they  are  well  received.  The  Indians  are  very 
well  able  to  effect  the  first ;  the  French  very  capable  of 
the  last,  and  they  would  gladly  revive  the  idea  of  a 
French  father  with  the  Indians,  though  they  have  en 
joyed  advantages  .under  an  English  government  they 
were  formerly  strangers  to,"* 

"I  have  the  honor  to  assure  your  Excellency," 
again  wrote  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  "that  every 
means  in  my  power  shall  be  used  to  second  your  in 
tentions  with  regard  to  the  Indians  of  the  Wabash  and 
the  invaders  at  the  Illinois  and  Vincennes  (for  intel 
ligence  has  arrived  from  the  Miamis  that  the  rebels 
had  sent  three  persons  to  that  place  and  have  nomi 
nated  three  Frenchmen  of  that  settlement  to  act  for 
them :  Mayette,  as  commandant ;  Bosseron,  as  mayor ; 
and  Monbrun,  as  lieutenant).  I  have  this  account 
from  Monsieur  de  Celoron-"f 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  just  cited. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Sept.  16,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  It  will  be  noticed  that  Hamilton  says  "that  the  rebels 
[Col.  Clark]  had  sent  three  persons"  to  Vincennes  to  occupy 
Fort  Sackville;  such  was  the  fact  as  will  hereafter  be  ex 
plained  —  one  officer  and  two  of  the  rank  and  file  of  his  force 

11 


162       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

It  was  some  comfort  to  the  Lieutenant-Governor 
to  learn,  that,  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  August,  a  party 
of  fifteen  Miamis  from  the  head  of  the  Maumee  went 
to  war  towards  the  Ohio  and  on  the  fifth  of  Septem 
ber  another  party,  consisting  of  a  chief  and  thirty 
men.  Even  Charles  Beaubien,  "the  King's  man," 
there,  on  the  next  day,  with  five  Chippewas  and  fif 
teen  Miamis  started  for  Vincennes,  but  his  undertak 
ing  was  a  failure. 

There  were  many  in  Detroit  even  to  so  late  a  date 
as  September  after  the  appearance  of  Clark  at  Kas- 
kaskia,  who  were  confident  the  ocupation  of  the  Illi 
nois  by  the  "rebels"  would  be  a  transitory  one,  even 
if  it  had  not  already  been  given  up.  But  Hamilton 
and  Hay  thought  otherwise.  "I  am  of  a  very  different 
opinion,"  wrote  the  latter.  "They  [the  'rebels"]  cer 
tainly  had  bills  upon  the  Spanish  governor,"  he  con 
tinued,  "which  were  answered  on  their  being  pro 
duced."  "And  as  we  have  but  too  much  reason  to  be 
lieve,"  he  added,  "they  were  well  received  by  the  in 
habitants,  they  will  not  .lose  their  hold  so  soon,  par 
ticularly  while  they  can  get  provisions  [and  other  nec 
essaries]  for  their  parties  that  are  or  may  be  on  the 
Ohio."*  So  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  sharing  in  the 
opinion  of  his  Indian  Agent,  resolved  to  attempt  the 
recovery  of  Kaskaskia  and  contiguous  villages  as  well 
as  Vincennes.  This  he  would  accomplish  with  his  In- 

at  Kaskaskia  were  the  "three  persons,"  the  main  dependence 
being,  as  before,  upon  the  Vincennes  militia. 

*Hay  to  Brehm,  [Sept.  —  1778].  —  Haldimand  MSS. 
Hay's  reasoning  had,  in  reality,  no  foundation  at  the  time, 
except  that  Clark  and  his  men  had  been  well  received  by 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Illinois.  (Hay's  letter  is  given  in  full 
in  Appendix,  Note  LIX.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       163 

dian  allies,  and  he  would  go  with  them  for  that  pur 
pose.  It  would  only  be  a  scout  on  a  large  scale.  Of 
his  own  motion,  however,  he  soon  changed  the  "scout" 
into  an  "expedition"  against  the  Americans  at  Vin- 
cennes  and  in  the  Illinois,  to  be  regularly  organized  to 
capture  the  country., 

Hamilton's  first  idea  —  that  is,  of  going  with  the 
Indians  was  strictly  in  accordance  with  Haldimand's 
views  already  sent  to  the  Lieutenant-Governor ;  —  he 
would  approve  such  steps  as  the  latter  found  necessary 
to  take  in  supporting  the  Wabash  Indians ;  and  Ham 
ilton  would  go  along  to  see  that  his  aid  was  made  ef 
fective.  And  the  further  words  of  Haldimand  were 
not  lost  upon  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  —  "And  I 
must  observe  that,  from  the  great  expense  to  which 
Government  has  been  put  by  the  Indians  in  general,  it 
might  be  expected  that  some  of  them  might  easily  be 
induced  to  undertake  expeditiously  to  clear  all  the  Illi 
nois  of  the  invaders;  and  if  the  efforts  of  the  parties 
which  you  send  out  and  have  proposed  to  send  out  to 
the  Ohio  were  properly  directed,  the  retreat  of  the 
rebels  and  especially  the  communication  and  inter 
course  which  they  want  to  establish,  by  that  river, 
with  the  French  and  Spaniards  might  be  so  disturbed, 
if  not  entirely  cut  off,  as  to  render  the  object  of  their 
expedition  [to  the  Illinois]  .  .  .  entirely  fruit 
less."  How,  then,  could  the  war-party  he  now  pro 
posed  to  send  out  be  more  properly  conducted  than  for 
him  to  go  along  and  direct  their  movements  ?  Would 
not  this  be  in  strict  accordance  with  the  instructions 
(or,  rather,  suggestions)  of  General  Haldimand? 
Evidently  Hamilton  so  thought,  and  he  acted  promptly 
upon  his  conviction.  But  the  words  of  Haldimand 


164       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

were  not,  strictly  speaking,  an  authorization  for  an 
"expedition"  against  the  "rebels"  in  the  Illinois  and  at 
Vincennes,  to  be  undertaken  by  Hamilton,  bringing 
whites  and  Indians  to  his  aid :  Indian  war-parties  with 
white  leaders  was  one  thing;  British  expeditions 
against  Americans  with  Indians  as  allies,  quite  an 
other.  And  the  Commander-in-chief  did  not  intend 
to  give  the  Lieutenant-Governor  authority  for  such  an 
undertaking.*  But  the  questions  asked  by  the  Gen 
eral  concerning  the  practicability  of  such  an  enter 
prise  f  only  confirmed  Hamilton  in  his  resolution  to  go 
on  with  the  expedition.  He  did  not  wait  orders  from 
Haldimand.  He  would  anticipate  them.  Vincennes 
was  first  to  be  occupied.^ 

"Captain  Lernoult,"  wrote  the  Lieutenant-Gov 
ernor,  "has  promised  me  every  aid  in  his  power ;  and, 
as  I  purpose  going  with  the  Indians,  I  hope  to  be  able 
to  keep  up  their  good  disposition.  I  rely  much  on  the 

*  Haldimand  to  —  — ,  June  17,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 
The  assertion  afterward  made  by  Clark  to  the  contrary  falls 
to  the  ground. 

t  In  Haldimand  to  Hamilton,  Aug.  27,  1778,  before  men 
tioned. 

|  "It  is  evident,"  says  a  Western  writer  "that  his  [Hamil 
ton's]  first  purpose  was  to  proceed  at  once  to  Kaskaskia, 
where  Clark's  force  was  stationed,  for  he  urges  Major  De 
Peyster  to  send  him  assistance."  —  C.  I.  Walker,  in  The 
North-West  During  the  Revolution,  pp.  20,  21.  But  Hamil 
ton's  correspondence,  as  will  presently  be  seen,  clearly  shows 
that  Vincennes  was  his  first  objective  point;  —  to  recover 
this  place  from  the  "rebels,"  his  first  purpose :  after  this 
had  been  accomplished,  he  would  proceed  against  Kaskaskia 
and  the  other  Illinois  towns.  He  did  not  propose  to  march 
against  the  latter  by  way  of  St.  Joseph  and  the  Illinois  river, 
but  would  take  the  other  route,  up  the  Maumee  and  down  the 
Wabash  to  Vincennes. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       165 

experiences  and  zeal  of  the  gentleman  [Jehu  Hay], 
who  has  been  deputy  agent  here  and  is  well  regarded 
by  them."* 

Hamilton,  at  the  same  time,  wrote  Major  De  Peys- 
ter  at  Michilimackinac,  acquainting  him  that  he  would 
set  off  in  about  twelve  days  to  attempt  to  dislodge  the 
"rebels"  at  the  Illinois ;  at  the  same  time  requesting 
him  to  engage  his  Indians  to  cooperate  by  way  of  the 
Illinois  river,  in  the  undertaking.f  He  soon  after 
sent  a  message  to  St.  Joseph  to  the  same  effect. 

Hamilton  also  informed  the  Commander-in-chief, 
that  the  water  of  the  Miamis  [river,  now  known  as  the 
Maumee],  was  reported  to  be  extraordinarily  low;  but 
the  weather  having  lately  changed,  it  might  be  ex 
pected  to  rise,  and  by  the  time  the  equinoctial  gales  are 
blown  over,  he  thought  there  would  be  water  sufficient 
for  his  purpose.  "As  I  expect  to  get  off  by  the  first 
of  October,"  he  also  wrote  the  General,  "I  am  to  re- 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Sept.  16,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 

t  Id.  "On  the  16th  and  17th  of  September,  with  an  en 
closure  from  M.  Celoron  of  the  Miamis  [should  be,  "of  Wea"] 
he  [Hamilton]  acknowledges  the  receipt  of  my  letters  of  the 
26th  and  27th  August,  and  says  that  he  will  fulfil  my  inten 
tions  concerning  the  rebels  who  have  taken  Post  Vincennes. 
He  will  accompany  the  Indians.  Captain  Lernoult  gives  him 
all  the  assistance  possible.  He  [Hamilton]  gives  notice  of  his 
intention  to  Major  de  Peyster  and  asks  him  to  engage  his 
Indians  to  cooperate  with  him  by  the  River  Illinois."  (Re 
marks  of  Haldimand  on  Hamilton's  Letters :  Haldimand 
MSS.)  "Sept.  15th.  I  had  the  honor  of  a  letter  from  your 
Excellency  [referring  to  Haldimand's  letter  of  Aug.  26th], 
and  in  consequence,  wrote  to  Major  De  Peyster,  at  Michili 
mackinac,  informing  him  of  my  design  of  attempting  to  dis 
lodge  the  rebels  from  the  Illinois."  (Hamilton  to  Haldimand, 
July  6,  1781:  Germain  MSS.) 


166       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

quest  of  your  Excellency  that  any  letters  you  may 
please  to  send  with  a  design  to  be  first  read  by  Cap 
tain  Lernoult,  may  have  a  flying  seal." 

Hamilton  then  gave  to  the  Commander-in-Chief 
more  of  his  intentions.  "Finding,"  said  he,  "from 
correspondents  at  Ouia  Tanon  [Wea]  and  the  Mi- 
amis,*  that  the  Wabash  and  other  Indians  are  averse 
to  the  Virginians  settling  at  the  Illinois,  I  concluded 
no  time  was  to  be  lost  in  supporting  and  encouraging 
them,  especially  as  by  the  letter  I  receive  from  the 
Miamis,  it  appears  that  the  French  are  too  much  dis 
posed  to  favor  the  rebels.  I  purpose  carrying  a  pres 
ent  for  the  savages  as  little  bulky  as  possible.  Sev 
eral  articles  necessary  for  such  an  enterprise  had  been 
forwarded  long  since,  so  that  the  time  necessary  for 
convening  the  chiefs  and  settling  matters  for  depart 
ure  may  be  easily  calculated.  Your  Excellency  is  no 
doubt  aware  that  in  an  undertaking  depending  so 
much  on  Indians,  and  in  a  settlement  where  I  am  but 
too  sensible  there  are  many  disaffected  persons,  secrecy 
is  impracticable,  I  hope  notwithstanding  to  second 
your  Excellency's  views  by  preventing  the  rebels  from 
confirming  themselves  at  Illinois.  .  .  Captain  Ler 
noult  and  Captain  Grant  give  me  every  possible  assist 
ance,  and  I  see  none  but  cheerful  faces  since  the  'scout' 
has  been  mentioned.  —  I  am  to  meet  the  chiefs  in 
council  this  morning,  after  which  Captain  Lernoult 
will  send  off  the  Angelica  to  Fort  Erie.  As  I  mean 
to  consult  with  the  headmen  on  the  numbers  neces 
sary  to  be  taken  with  us,  I  hope  to  leave  for  your  Ex 
cellency  a  return  of  the  effectives  for  the  enterprise. 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Sept.  16,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  (See  Appendix,  Note  LX.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       167 

"Since  last  May  the  Indians  in  this  district  have 
taken  thirty-four  prisoners  (seventeen  of  whom  they 
delivered  up)  and  eighty-one  scalps:  several  prisoners 
taken  and  adopted  are  not  reckoned  in  this  number." 

As  to  the  assertion  here  that  "several  prisoners 
taken  and  adopted  are  not  reckoned,"  it  is  certain  the 
Lieutenant-Governor  misstated  the  facts.  Well 
enough  did  he  know  they  had  not  all  been  adopted,  al 
though  possibly  a  very  few  had  been.  Then,  too,  in 
stead  of  "several"  he  certainly  was  aware  many  had 
been  captured  that  had  not  been  given  up.  "Seven 
teen  of  the  above  prisoners,"  wrote  the  Indian  agent 
at  Detroit,  referring  to  those  mentioned  by  Hamilton, 
"were  delivered  up  here,  but  there  are  many  more 
among  them  that  as  yet  we  know  nothing  of."* 

"We  have  many  .  .  [Indian]  parties  out,"  are 
the  words  of  the  Detroit  agent  of  Indian  affairs,  at 
this  time,  "but  Governor  Hamilton,  for  want  of  fresh 
instructions  or  orders  has  confined  himself  to  the  tenor 
of  those  he  has  first  received,  namely:  carrying  con 
tinual  alarms  to  draw  the  attention  of  the  rebels  to  the 
frontiers ;  preventing  the  re-setting  of  the  country  al 
ready  abandoned ;  and  harrassing  those  destined  to 
keep  up  a  communication  between  the  small  forts 
which  you  may  imagine  they  have  done,  as  three  dif 
ferent  parties  sent  from  this  [place  —  Detroit  —  ] 
since  spring  have  taken  thirty-three  prisoners  and 
eighty  scalps,  with  the  loss  of  eight  principal  Hurons 
[Wyandots],  one  Ottawa,  and  one  Pottawattamie. 
Fourteen  of  the  different  nations  were  wounded. "f 

*Hay  to  Brehm  (Sept.  —  1778).  —  Haldimand  MSS. 
(See  Appendix,  Note  LTX.) 

t  Hay  to  Brehm,  just  cited.  I  find  nowhere  else  the 
policy  of  Hamilton  so  clearly  set  forth  as  in  this  letter. 


168       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

The  continued  asseverations  of  Hamilton  and  Hay 
as  to  the  lack  of  barbarity  on  part  of  the  Indians  in 
their  forays  into  the  border  settlements,  because  of  in 
structions  from  both  to  forbear  their  bloodthirstiness, 
was  a  sham  —  the  merest  delusion.  That  the  protes 
tations  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor  and  his  Indian 
agent  had  some  restraining  influence  on  the  Lake  In 
dians  —  the  Ottawas,  Chippewas,  Pottawattamies  and 
Detroit  Wyandots  —  is  true ;  at  most,  however,  it  was 
but  slight.  On  the  Sandusky  Wyandots,  the  Min- 
goes,  and  particularly  the  Shawanese,  it  amounted  to 
nothing.  Hay,  in  his  desire  to  promote  every  effort 
on  part  of  the  savages,  wholly  lost  sight  of  the  real 
contest  —  that  between  the  Mother  country  and  her 
rebellious  Colonies.  To  his  mind  it  was,  in  the  West, 
an  Indian  War  pure  and  simple.  Hear  him: 

"The  four  nations  of  the  Lakes  —  The  Ottawas, 
Chippewas,  Hurons  [Detroit  Wyandots],  and  Potta 
wattamies  —  have  shown  great  attachment  to  his 
Majesty  and  Government.  The  Shawanese,  Min- 
goes  and  part  of  the  Delawares,  have  been  very 
active.  They  are  stimulated  as  much  by  the  late  in 
cursion  of  the  Virginians  under  Lord  Dunmore  and 
their  cruelties  since  as  anything  else.  Some  of  them 
took  up  the  hatchet  before  they  were  asked;  the  rest 
upon  dliberation  and  in  assurance  of  their  being  sup 
ported  by  Government.  And  I  must  confess  there 
never  was  known  an  Indian  war  carried  on  with  as 
little  of  their  wanton  cruelty.  Indeed,  the  sparing  of 
the  lives  of  prisoners,  the  aged  men,  women  and 
children,  was  insisted  on  from  the  first ;  and  they  have 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      169 

paid  great  attention  to  it;  and  they  never  went  with 
out  some  reward  for  their  compliance."* 

It  was  not  a  question  with  Hamilton,  in  giving  in 
structions  to  white  partisans  who  led  savage  war- 
parties  or  to  the  Indians  themselves,  as  to  whether  the 
borders,  when  attacked,  were  in  arms  —  were  in  fact 
combatants  —  but  were  they  able  to  defend  them 
selves  ;  just  as  though  the  bloodthirsty  warriors  would 
discriminate  between  the  middle-aged  and  the  aged! 
And  here  it  may  be  said  that  the  gratitudes  bestowed  by 
the  Lieutenant-Governor  were  by  no  means  confined 
to  those  savages  who  spared  the  lives  of  such  as  were 
incapable  of  defense;  but  they  were  given  whenever 
prisoners  and  scalps  were  brought  in,  and  with  a  de 
light  that  was  always  manifest  by  the  words  and 
actions  of  the  giver ;  and  these  donations,  as  before 
suggested,  had  exactly  the  effect  of  a  standing  reward. 

The  reasons  brought  forward  by  Hamilton  that  the 
French  inhabitants  of  the  Illinois  were  too  much  dis 
posed  to  favor  the  "rebels,"  and  that  the  Wabash  and 
other  Indians  did  not  relish  the  idea  of  Virginians 
settling  there,  were  indeed  weighty  as  inducements  for 
his  undertaking  to  recover  that  country;  but  Hay 
doubted  the  sincerity  of  the  Wabash  Indians  in  that 
regard.  He  thought  they  would  probably  remain  neu 
tral  until  they  found  themselves  sufficiently  supplied 
with  necessaries  by  the  Virginians  and  that  then  it 
might  be  expected  they  would  be  at  least  overbearing 
and  perhaps  insolent,  which  would  affect  those  nearer 
Detroit,  in  so  much  as  to  require  more  expense  and 
great  diligence  to  keep  them  to  their  duty.f 

*  Hay  to  Brehm,  before  cited. 
fid. 


CHAPTER  X. 

AFTER  the  middle  of  September,  Hamilton  made 
almost  daily  report  of  progress  in  his  undertak 
ing.  On  the  twenty-second,  he  wrote  the  Cotn- 
mander-in-Chief  "that  the  preparations"  for  his  "lit 
tle  enterprise"  were  forwarding  with  alacrity.  But 
surely  it  was  to  be  something  besides  a  "scout ;"  — 
instead  of  his  going  with  the  Indians  they  were  to  go 
with  him.  He  was  now  profiting  by  the  hint  given 
him  by  the  Commander-in-Chief  as  to  the  number  and 
disposition  of  the  militia  of  his  district,  and  the  com 
pany  he  had  raised  at  Detroit  "and  put  on  actual  pay 
for  service."* 

"Having  reviewed  the  companies  of  militia,"  Ham 
ilton  subsequently  wrote,  "I  found  there  would  be 
as  many  of  them  turn  out  volunteers  as  (with 
the  regulars,  Lamothe's  company  and  the  Indians) 
would  employ  what  little  craft  we  had."f  The 
"little  enterprise"  was  assuming  large  proportions. 
Fifteen  pirogues  capable  of  transporting  from 
eighteen  hundred  to  three  thousand  pounds  each, 
having  had  a  thorough  repair,  set  off  for  the 
rapids  of  the  Maumee,  where  cattle  and  wheels 
had  likewise  been  sent  to  expedite  the  carriage  at  that 
portage.  "Biscuit  is  baked,  provisions  packed  in 
small  barrels  or  bags,  the  militia  companies  drafted, 
artillery  stores  prepared,  boats  mending,  and  all  that 
can  be  thought  of,  put  forward,"  are  the  words  of  the 
Lieutenant-Governor.  "If  it  be  possible,"  said  he,  "to 

*Haldimand  to  Hamilton,  Aug.  27,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
(170) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       171 

move  off  on  the  first  of  next  month,  I  shall  use  my 
best  endeavors  to  do  it.  I  can  not  foresee,  though  I 
shall  provide  against  any  inclemency  of  the  weather 
which  ought  to  prevent  our  taking  and  maintaining 
Port  Vincennes  till  reinforcements  can  join  us.  Light 
cannon  and  .an  able  engineer  (as  I  must  confess  my 
own  want  of  knowledge  in  a  branch  which  requires 
abilities  which  I  could  never  pretend  to)  are  capital 
points  [to  be  considered  in  this  connection]." 

"I  purpose,"  continued  Hamilton,  "taking  presents 
not  only  for  the  Wabash  and  more  Western  Indians, 
but  to  encourage  the  Delawares,  Mingoes  and  Shaw- 
anese  to  keep  good  watch  towards  the  banks  of  the 
Ohio  during  the  winter  season,  when  the  savages  are 
usually  dispersed  for  hunting.  If  the  Western  In 
dians  express  their  resentment  for  the  inroad  of  the 
rebels  into  their  country,  this  will  be  a  noble  opportu 
nity  to  build  a  fort  on  so  important  a  spot  as  the  forks 
at  the  confluence  of  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi,  which 
may  be,  in  future  a  bridle  on  the  Americans  of  what 
ever  denomination  or  interest.  The  Falls  on  the  Ohio 
are  another  important  pass,  which  I  believe  the  rebels 
will  not  omit  to  secure  and  fortify.  The  forks  of  the 
Kankakee  are  a  third  object,  with  the  mouth  of  the 
Missouri,  for  keeping  the  savages  in  temper. 

"As  there  are  points  perhaps,"  are  the  further 
words  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  "too  difficult  to  be 
attempted  in  our  present  situation,  perhaps  liable  to 
objection  in  any,  I  mention  them  with  that  distrust  and 
diffidence  which  my  humble  station  and  abilities  de 
mand —  it  would  however  make  me  very  happy  to 
think  a  proposal  of  the  kind  should  meet  with  your 
Excellency's  approbation  and  that  I  could  be  in  the 


172       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

slenderest  degree  a  means  of  promoting  the  honor  and 
interest  of  my  king  and  country.  The  Spaniards  are 
feeble  and  hated  by  the  French,  the  French  are  fickle 
and  have  no  man  of  capacity  to  advise  or  lead  them, 
the  rebels  are  enterprising  and  brave,  but  want  re 
sources,  and  the  Indians  can  have  their  resources  but 
from  the  English  if  we  act  without  loss  time  in  the  fa 
vorable  conjuncture.  This  may  appear  a  picture 
with  strong  lights  and  little  or  no  shade,  but  as  the  ef 
fects  of  pushing  a  force  supported  by  the  zeal  of  the 
Indians  (who  have  hitherto  acted  with  perfect  compli 
ance)  have  not  yet  been  tried,  I  hope  to  be  excused  if 
perhaps  too  sanguine.  The  most  considerable  of  the 
French  in  this  settlement  have  shown  a  very  good  ex 
ample,  and  it  is  better  followed  than  I  had  expected. 
The  appearance  of  a  reinforcement  from  Niagara  will 
fortify  them  in  their  good  disposition. 

"I  design  forming  a  depot  at  the  Miamis  [head  of 
the  Maumee],  but  shall  take  a  survey  of  the  portage 
before  I  fix  on  its  being  on  this  or  the  other  side  of  the 
carrying  place  i  should  the  Indians  act  with  zeal  for  us, 
it  shall  be  on  the  other  side,  if  coolly,  on  this.  An  ac 
count  of  the  numbers  which  leave  this  place  shall  be 
transmitted  to  your  Excellency  by  the  next  vessel 
which  goes  to  Fort  Erie.  The  savages  are  to  give 
their  answer  this  day.  Some  working  oxen  and  horses 
set  off  at  once  for  the  Miamis  to  forward  the  trans 
port  of  provisions  at  that  carrying  place."* 

The  next  day,  Flamilton  again  wrote  Haldimand : 
"This  day,  I  met  the  Ottawas,  the  Chippewas  and  Pot- 
tawattamies  in  council  by  their  own'  appointment. 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Sept.  22,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       173 

present  Captain  Lernoult,  Lieutenant  [Daniel]  Shourd 
and  the  interpreters.  The  Hurons  [Wyandots]  were 
to  have  come,  but  the  bad  weather  prevented  them ; 
however,  the  Ottawas  spoke  with  a  sort  of  resentment 
at  their  failing  to  meet  as  agreed  upon.  Some  days 
ago,  I  had  called  the  chiefs  together  and  without  di 
rectly  asking  them  to  join  me,  had  told  them  I  was 
going  to  rise  up  to  keep  my  word  with  the  Wabash 
Indians,  who  had  taken  up  the  axe  of  their  father  the 
King,  and  who  had  accepted  his  medals  and  professed 
their  attachment  to  the  English.  I  further  informed 
them  that  my  hands  were  loosed  by  your  orders ;  that 
I  should  no  longer  consider  myself  a  village  chief  and 
that  Captain  Lernoult  would  act  the  part  of  a  father  in 
my  absence.  This,  with  the  mustering  the  militia, 
pressing  all  the  craft  on  the  river,  and  other  prepara 
tions,  informed  them  sufficiently  of  my  design  of  going 
to  war." 

The  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  officers  and  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  militia,  who  came  forward  from  the  dif 
ferent  companies  as  volunteers  to  the  number  of 
seventy-five,  was  tendered  on  the  twenty-fourth.  In 
the  afternoon  of  the  same  day  the  Indians  had  an  ox 
roasted  and  Captain  Lernoult  with  several  of  the  offi 
cers  and  principal  inhabitants  assisted  at  the  feast.* 

The  next  day,  Hamilton  wrote  Haldimand  that  a 
chief  of  the  Pottawattamies  had  just  taken  charge  of 
a  letter  and  message  to  St.  Joseph.  The  letter  was  to 
Louis  Chevalier.  As  Major  De  Peyster  at  Michili- 
mackinac  had  full  confidence  in  the  Frenchman,  the 
Lieutenant-Governor  wrote  him  in  a  style  to  prompt 
him  to  deserve  it  also  from  the  latter.  But  Hamilton 

*  Same  to  same,  Sept.  24,  1778.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 


174      HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

was  skeptical  on  the  point.  However,  as  there  was  no 
other  person  there  to  engage  the  Pottawattamies  to  act, 
he  made  a  virtue  of  a  necessity  in  writing  him ;  at  the 
same  time  declaring  to  the  Commander-in-Chief  that 
as  interest  was  his  (Chevalier's)  Deity,  perhaps  he 
might  reconcile  his  worship  with  his  duty.* 

Of  the  officers  of  the  Indian  Department  at  Detroit, 
one  —  Captain  and  Interpreter  Alexander  McKee, 
who  had  joined  Hamilton  because  there  was  "a  pros 
pect  of  uniting  the  Western  and  Southern  Indians  and 
engaging  them  in  his  Majesty's  service  —  was  dis 
patched  in  advance,  on  the  twenty-sixth,  with  a  mes 
sage  to  the  Shawanese  asking  them  to  send  warriors  to 
aid  him  in  his  enterprise,  and  a  present  of  ammunition 
to  be  forwarded  from  the  Ohio  wilderness  to  a  party  of 
the  same  nation,  which,  under  the  lead  of  a  white  man, 
was  besieging  one  of  the  Kentucky  forts ;  and  he  was 
particularly  enjoined  to  make  inquiries  as  to  what  was 
doing  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  as  Hamilton  had 
quickly  seen,  upon  being  informed  that  the  Americans 
had  a  lodgment  there,  how  important  (should  it  de 
velop  into  a  strong  fortification)  it  might  become  in 
controlling  the  Ohio.f 

On  the  evening  of  the  day  last  mentioned  Charles 
Beaubien,  government  agent  at  the  head  of  the  Mau- 
mee,  reached  Detroit,  bringing  letters  which  mentioned 

*  Same    to    same,    Sept.    25,    1778.  —  Haldimand    MSS. 

t  For  a  list  of  officers  in  the  Indian  Department  who  went 
upon  the  expedition,  see  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note 
LXIII.  The  fort  mentioned  as  being  besieged,  it  may  be  pre 
mised,  was  Boonesborough,  and  the  white  leader  of  the 
Shawanese,  Lieut.  Fontenoy  Dequindu,  of  the  Indian  Depart 
ment  at  Detroit.  That  Hamilton's  message  to  the  Shawanese 
was  for  the  purpose  mentioned  above  is  sufficiently  evident 
from  what  afterward  transpired. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       175 

that  one  Clark;  with  eighty  men,  was  at  Vincennes, 
where  the  French  received  them  well.*  Notwith 
standing  the  Indians  at  Wea  had  been  represented  to 
Hamilton  as  undecided  and  timerous,  yet,  —  "I  shall 
lose  no  time,"  said  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  "to  en 
courage  them."  It  was  his  belief  should  he  reach 
there  time  enough  to  speak  to  the  chiefs  before  they 
took  a  decisive  part,  the  sight  of  the  lake  chiefs  would 
determine  them  as  he  could  wish. 

On  the  twenty-seventh,  Hamilton  received  from  De 
Celoron,  at  Wea,  a  letter,  giving  him  information  that 
Jean  Baptiste  Chapoton,  late  a  captain  of  militia  at 
Detroit,  but  then  in  Vincennes,  was  very  intimate  with 
the  "rebels."  "He  had  been  dismissed  at  his  own  re 
quest,  on  the  pretence  of  being  too  old  to  fulfill  the 
functions  of  his  place,"  are  the  indignant  words  of 
Hamilton.  Then  there  were  others  friendly  to  the 
Americans  —  especially  Bosseron  and  Legras.  The 
latter,  the  Lieutenant-Governor  bitterly  denounced: 
"He  is  on  the  best  terms  imaginable  with  the  rebel  of 
ficers  at  Vincennes.  He  had  been  equipped  at  De 
troit,  was  in  partnership  here ;  and  had  received  •  fa 
vors  at  the  hands  of  the  English  and  French  at  this 
place,  to  say  nothing  of  Governor  Abbott's  kindness  to 
him."  He  and  Chapoton  were,  in  Hamilton's  estima 
tion,  worthy  associates  in  perjury,  treason  and  ingrat 
itude —  both  had  exceeded  the  terms  expressed  in 
their  passes,  which  they  had  sworn  not  to  do. 

The  Lieutenant-Governor,  on  the  day  last  men 
tioned,  ordered  a  lieutenant  in  the  Indian  department, 
with  a  small  party  of  militia,  to  the  Miamis  —  head  of 

*  Who  this  "one  Clark"  really  was,  and  what  his  business 
at  Vincennes  was,  "with  eighty  men,"  will  hereafter  appear. 


176       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

the  Maumee  —  giving  him  written  instructions.  His 
party  was  to  assist  the  workmen  in  repairing  the  port 
age  ;  also  to  aid  the  master  carpenter,  boat  builder  arid 
others  at  the  same  place. 

"My  determination  is,"  wrote  Hamilton  to  Haldi- 
mand,  "to  set  out  as  soon  as  possible.  Captain  Ler- 
noult  will  send  forward  any  reinforcement ;  thus  the 
time  spent  in  Indian  councils  (which  are  sometimes 
very  deliberate)  may  be  employed  at  the  Miamis  in 
fortifying  that  depot  ["Fort  Miami"],  calling  in  the 
Indians,  building  craft  and  store'  houses  and  procur 
ing  intelligence." 

Relative  to  the  post  at  the  head  of  the  Maumee  — 
"the  Miamis"-  — the  Lieutenant- Governor  said: 

"There  will  be  a  store  of  provisions,  perhaps  of 
ammunition  and  Indian  goods  at  that  place.  As  soon 
as  I  arrive  there,  I  shall  order  a  redoubt  to  be  thrown 
up,  the  houses  to  be  fortified,  or  such  other  precaution 
taken  for  its  defence,  as  may  appear  best  suited  to  the 
number  of  inhabitants  and  nature  of  the  ground.  If 
the  rebels  at  Fort  Pitt,  with  the  assitance  of  the  Del- 
awares  in  their  interest,  could  effect  the  surprise  of 
such  a  place,  they  would  not  only  possess  themselves 
of  our  magazine  but  cut  off  one  of  our  communications 
with  Detroit,  as  we  might  in  that  case  be  obliged  to  re 
turn  by  the  way  of  St.  Joseph  and  be  distressed  for 
provision.  I  shall  represent  this  to  Capt.  Lernoult, 
who  will  judge  how  far  a  detachment  sent  to  the  Mi- 
amis,  will  be  a  cover  to  Detroit,  and  facilitate  and  se 
cure  our  correspondence  and  communication. 

"The  weakness  of  the  garrison  of  Detroit  is  known 
to  your  Excellency.  I  need  not,  therefore,  dwell  on 
that  subject,  but  at  all  events  I  shall  proceed,  guided 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       177 

by  the  best  information  I  can  procure.  Among  sev 
eral  persons  very  capable  of  informing  as  to  the  nature 
of  the  country  and  character  of  the  inhabitants,  Mr. 
Alexis  Maisonville  is  perhaps  the  most  so ;  and  I  must 
render  that  justice  to  his  zeal  and  good  will  which  they 
merit.  He  has  been  very  forward  on  this  occasion  and 
every  other  to  act  the  part  of  a  good  subject.  I  beg 
leave  to  recommend  him  to  your  Excellency's  favor. 
When  we  shall  arrive  at  the  Illinois,  I  expect  great  ad 
vantage  from  his  enterprising  spirit." 

"Favorable  rains,"  added  Hamilton,  "for  some  days 
past  and  the  good  temper  and  disposition  of  the  In 
dians,  encourage  me  to  hope  our  little  enterprise  may 
be  attended  with  some  advantage.  When  Mr.  Beau- 
bien  left  the  Miamis,  there  was  no  notion  there  of  any 
preparation ;  so  that  the  first  reports  at  the  Illinois  will 
gain  but  little  credit."* 

"We  have  found  it  a  difficult  matter,"  is  the  lan 
guage  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor  to  the  Commander- 
in-Chief,  on  the  second  of  October,  "to  find  savages  to 
express  with  letters  to  Niagara,  they  are  so  desirous  of 
going  towards  the  Wabash ;  I  hope,  however,  to  pro 
cure  them  to-morrow.  On  account  of  all  the  vessels 
being  absent,  the  repairing  our  craft  goes  on  but 
slowly ;  the  master-builder  is  this  day  to  give  in  the  re 
turn  of  those  in  condition,  and  a  second  brigade  will 
set  off  on  the  fifth  instant.  The  violent  rains  which 
were  so  necessary  for  raising  the  waters  of  the  Mi- 
amis  [Maumee]  river,  have  retarded  us  in  many  par 
ticulars.  Your  Excellency  will  please  to  observe,  that, 
on  the  list  of  volunteers  for  the  enterprise,  several  per- 

*Id. 

12 


178       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

sons  are  employed  who  must  carry  arms  when  occa 
sion  calls ;  as  to  the  high  pay  —  wages  are  so  extrava 
gant  here  that  the  common  men  receive  but  half  what 
they  might  earn  were  they  to  stay  at  home;  this  en 
couragement  was,  therefore,  necessary."* 

On  the  third,  Hamilton  again  wrote :  "Last  night 
the  savages  assembled,  when  I  sung  the  war  song  and 
was  followed  by  Captain  Lernoult  and  several  officers 
and  others,  and  by  warriors  going  on  the  enterprise."! 

"The  best  disposition  and  alacrity,"  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor  added,"  are  shown  by  all.  Two  Indians  set 
off  this  day  [for  Niagara],  with  letters.  As  Captain 
Lernoult  can  not  spare  men  from  the  garrison  [to 
handle  the  pieces],  I  leave  two  small  howitzers  behind, 
as  they  would  be  but  lumber  without  people  to  work 
them.  I  have,  for  the  six-pounder  which  we  take,  two 
artillery  men,  one  sergeant,  one  corporal  and  twelve  of 
the  volunteer  militia,  —  under  the  orders  of  Lieutenant 
Du  Vernet,  who  has  exerted  himself  in  providing  and 
preparing  the  many  necessaries  coming  under  his  di 
rection.  I  shall  set  off  for  the  Miamis  river  the  i6th 
without  fail."J 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 

fid.     (See  Appendix,  Note  LXI.) 

|  Hamilton  to  Haldimand. —Haldimand  MSS.  "Orders 
having  been  given  in  time  for  putting  the  carrying-place  at 
the  Miamis  [head  of  the  Maumee]  in  order  and  for  repairing 
the  carriages,  etc. ;  the  proper  artificers  having  been  engaged, 
craft  overhauled,  and  the  weight  of  the  provisions,  ammuni 
tion,  stores,  Indian  goods,  etc.,  calculated ;  the  Indians  being 
found  well-disposed  and  messengers  sent  to  the  different 
nations  resorting  to  Detroit,  apprising  them  of  my  design  and 
exhorting  them  to  send  out  frequent  parties  upon  the  fron 
tiers  ;  —  the  day  was  fixed  for  our  departure."  —  Hamilton  to 
Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       179 

"The  sixth,  our  tents  were  struck,"  says  the  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor,  before  day  and  most  of  our  stores 
embarked,  when  three  Hurons  [Wyandots]  from  San- 
dusky  arrived  with  a  very  circumstantial  account  of 
the  approach  of  the  rebels  by  several  different  routes ; 
that  the  advance  guard  of  their  main  body  was  eight 
hundred  strong ;  that  they  were  provided  with  cannon 
to  come  against  Detroit ;  with  various  particulars  cal 
culated  to  alarm  and  disconcert  the  Indians.  I  told 
the  messengers,  however  little  credit  I  gave  this  ac 
count,  it  should  be  communicated  to  the  four  neigh 
boring  nations — [Ottawas,  Chippewas,  Pottawatta- 
mies  and  Detroit  Wyandots]  — but  that  I  had  engaged 
to  assist  the  Wabash  Indians  and  I  would  keep  my 
word.  The  Indians  being  assembled  in  the  afternoon, 
heard  my  opinion  of  the  intelligence  and  with  the  ut 
most  cheerfulness  agreed  to  accompany  us.  During 
our  meeting,  the  vessels  hove  in  sight." 

"The  seventh,  at  eight  in  the  morning,"  adds  Ham 
ilton,  "Captain  Bird,  with  fifty  of  the  King's  regiment 
from  Niagara,  were  landed.  Captain  Lernoult  has 
permitted  Lieutenant  Shourd,  with  two  sergeants  and 
thirty  [one]  men  [of  the  regulars]  to  accompany  us ; 
which,  considering  our  hasty  levies,  will  be  a  reinforce 
ment  of  consequence.  The  true  spirit  of  the  service 
prompts  Lieutenant  Shourd,  his  sergeants,  and,  I 
think,  the  greater  part  of  his  men,  to  present  them 
selves  on  this  occasion.  Our  strength  will  now  con 
sist  of  one  lieutenant  of  artillery  with  two  gunners ; 
one  lieutenant  of  the  King's  regiment,  two  sergeants 
and  thirty-one  rank  and  file  and  the  volunteers  and 
militia,  as  mentioned  in  a  former  letter.  The  Indians 


180       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

are  about  seventy;  several  of  them  chiefs,  the  rest 
picked  men.  My  satisfaction  is,  all  are  volunteers."* 

Hamilton  was  now  ready  to  march.  His  force  was 
made  up  besides  that  of  the  regulars,  who  were  to 
overtake  him  (they  could  not  get  ready  to  leave  for 
some  little  time,  but  would  join  Hamilton  at  no  dis 
tant  day;f  of  Captain  William  Lamoth's  volunteer 
company,  numbering  (besides  the  captain),  one  lieu 
tenant,  two  sergeants  and  forty  rank  and  file,  "being/' 
says  Hamilton,  "volunteers,  who  had  been  disciplined 
in  the  best  manner  we  could  compass  for  about  one 
year;"  of  eighty-five  militia  —  volunteers  selected 
from  those  who  presented  themselves  at  the  reviews  of 
the  militia  companies  of  the  settlement ;  of  ten  "Indian 
officers"  and  employes  from  the  Indian  Department; 
and  of  seventy  Indians. ij: 

Pierre  Potier,  a  Jesuit  missionary,  "a  man  of  re 
spectable  character  and  venerable  figure,"  now  made 
his  appearance  on  the  Detroit  common,  at  the  head  of 
the  Lieutenant-Governor's  encampment,  "and,  having 
attended  to  the  reading  of  the  articles  of  war  and  the 
renewal  of  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  his  Britannic  Maj 
esty,  gave  the  blessing  to  the  Catholics  present,  con 
ditionally  upon  their  strictly  adhering  to  their  oaths, 
being  the  more  engaged  thereto  as  the  indulgence  and 

*Haldimand  MSS.  (Appendix,  Note  LXII.)  There 
was  much  more  truth  in  the  report  brought  to  Hamilton  by 
Wyandots,  than  the  Lieutenant  Governor  was  disposed  to 
accept.  It  was  in  reality  an  account  of  the  first  movement 
made  by  General  Mclntosh  from  Fort  Pitt  to  erect,  down  the 
Ohio,  Fort  Mclntosh. 

t  This  fact  only  appears  in  a  letter  written  by  Hamilton 
after  his  departure. 

I  See  Appendix,  Note  LXIII. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       181 

favor  of  their  prince  merited  the  best  service  and  had 
exceeded  their  most  sanguine  expectations."* 

"On  the  seventh  of  October/'  are  the  words  of 
Hamilton  written  some  years  after,  "various  necessa 
ries  for  a  winter  movement  of  six  hundred  miles  being 
provided,  by  the  activity  and  good  will  of  Captains 
Lernoult  and  Grant,  the  latter  of  whom  had  attended 
to  everything  afloat,  and  by  the  assistance  of  Major 
Hay  and  Mr.  Fleming,  the  commissary,  we  struck  our 
tents  and  embarked  with  one  field  piece,  which  was  all 
could  be  spared  from  the  garrison.  Only  one  single 
person,  (he  an  Indian)  was  affected  with  liquor,  f 

By  the  middle  of  August,  De  Peyster  at  Michili- 
mackinac,  not  yet  having  heard  of  Clark's  success  in 
the  Illinois,  wrote  the  Commander-in-Chief  that  he 
was  informed  reports  had  been  circulated  there  in  all 
the  towns  that  the  French  would  soon  take  possession 
of  that  country.  He  declared  —  which  was  true,  as 
had  been  discovered  —  that  there  were  no  troops  to 
prevent  the  Virginians  from  going  there,  not  dream 
ing  that  the  latter  had  already  captured  those  villages. 
"The  French,"  said  he,  "have  it  in  their  power  to 
spread  reports  and  poison  the  minds  of  the  Indians  so 
as  at  least  to  make  it  very  dangerous  to  traders. "J 

At  the  same  time,  the  Michilimackinac  command 
ant  gave  some  interesting  information  as  to  Chevalier, 
with  whom  he  had  been  in  correspondence  and  had  re 
cently  received  a  letter  from  him  giving  information 
that  forty  of  the  savages  living  near  St.  Joseph  he  per- 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 

f  Id.  (As  to  what  Hamilton  meant  by  "a  winter  move 
ment  of  six  hundred  miles,"  see  Appendix,  Note  LXIV.) 

tDe  Peyster  to  Haldimand,  Aug.  15,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


182       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

suaded  to  remain  at  home  after  their  making  all  prep 
arations  to  go  to  "West  Illinois"  to  see  the  Spaniards.* 
"Mr.  Louis  Chevalier,  at  St.  Joseph,"  said  he,  "holds 
the  pass  [from  the  Illinois]  to  Detroit,  and  can  also 
give  the  first  intelligence  of  the  enemy's  motion  on  the 
Wabash  [as  it  was  not  a  great  distance  across  to  that 
river]. 

"This  gentleman  is  so  connected  with  the  Pottawat- 
tamies  that  he  can  now  do  anything  with  them,  having 
lived  upwards  of  thirty  years,  at  that  place.  A  young 
Indian  named  Aimoble,  at  present  at  Montreal,  is  his 
son.  If  some  mark  of  distinction  were  given  to  this 
young  man,  and  if  he,  with  a  few  of  his  comrade  Pot- 
tawattamies,  were  persuaded  to  remain  another  year  at 
Montreal,  it  would  be  of  great  service ;  as  those  at  St. 
Joseph  would  never  misbehave  whilst  any  of  their 
friends  were  down  the  country." 

"In  the  year  1763,"  added  De  Peyster,  "when  St. 
Joseph  was  cut  off,  Mr.  Chevalier,  two  days  before  it 
happened,  informed  M.  Schlosser  of  the  Indians  hav 
ing  bad  intentions,  which  he  [Schlosser]  did  not  be 
lieve  at  his  cost.  Chevalier,  happening  to  be  present, 
it  gave  some  designing  people  a  handle  against  him,  as 
his  innocence  was  not  generally  known.  I  have  since 
my  arrival  here  [at  Michilimackinac]  inquired  partic 
ularly  into  all  these  matters,  and  finding  that  affair  no 
wise  to  his  disadvantage,  and  seeing  the  great  atten 
tion  paid  to  him  by  the  Indians,  I  thought  it  necessary 

*  Chevalier  to  De  Peyster,  July  20,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  Chevalier  does  not  say  the  Pottawattamies  were  going 
to  see  the  Spaniards,  but  "the  enemy."  However,  it  is  prob 
able  he  intended  to  mention  them,  as  they  had  been  tamper 
ing  with  these  Indians;  and  Chevalier  had  not  then  heard 
that  Clark  had  reached  the  Illinois. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       183 

to  render  him  useful  by  giving  him  some  authority  at 
St.  Joseph,  which  he  has  hitherto  exerted  with  great 
discretion."* 

It  was  on  the  very  last  day  of  August  that  De  Pey- 
ster,  through  a  letter  received  from  Chevalier,  was  put 
in  possession  of  (to  him)  the  astounding  news  that  the 
whole  Illinois  country  was  in  possession  of  the  "reb 
els  ;"  -  —  "the  traders  in  that  country,"  he  wrote  Haldi- 
mand,  "and  many  from  this  post  [Michilimackinac], 
are  plundered  and  the  whole  country  [is]  in  the  great 
est  confusion,  being  at  a  loss  to  know  what  route  the 
rebels  will  take  next."f 

But  the  news  of  Clark's  success  had  already 
reached  the  Commander-in-Chief  by  way  of  Detroit, 
and  the  latter  soon  wrote  De  Peyster.  "This  dis 
patch,"  said  he,  "was  intended  to  have  been  sent  you 
by  a  Mr.  St.  Hubert,  a  misisonary  going  to  the  Illi 
nois;  but  the  unfortunate  change  which  has  taken 
place  in  the  affairs  of  that  country,  for  the  present  puts 
a  stop  to  his  journey,  —  the  gentleman,  Mr.  J.  B.  de 
Grosselier,  with  whom  Mr.  St.  Hubert  was  to  have 
gone  up,  proceeding  nevertheless ;  and  he  being  a  man 
who  is  well  acquainted  with  that  country  and  very  well 
spoken  of,  I  entrust  my  letters  to  his  care  and  recom 
mend  him  to  you  both  as  a  man  who  deserves  to  have 
favor  shown  him  in  his  private  concerns  and  as  one 
that  is  capable  of  furnishing  you  with  advice  that  may 
be  useful  to  follow  in  those  of  the  public,  upon  the 
present  situation  of  the  Illinois. 

"I  enclose  you  a  copy  of  a  letter  which  I  have  writ 
ten  to  Lieutenant-Governor  Hamilton  as  necessary  for 

*  De  Peyster  to  Haldimand,  Aug.  15,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 

f  Same  to  same,  Aug.  31,  1778. 


184       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

your  information,  and  desiring  that  you  will  corre 
spond  with  him  upon  the  occasion,  and  assist  him  as 
far  as  you  may  have  opportunities  in  whatever  he  shall 
undertake  in  this  emergency.  In  the  meantime,  I 
must  desire  you  will  communicate  to  me  as  expedi- 
tiously  as  possible,  and  by  the  safest  conveyance  your 
sentiments,  whether  from  the  confidence  to  be  placed 
in  the  Indians,  the  inhabitants,  and  the  resources  and 
difficulties  of  the  country,  you  think  there  are  any 
means  to  be  employed  with  a  probability  of  success  to 
recover  that  country  and  what  those  means  are  if  your 
opinion  on  this  object  be  in  the  affirmative."* 

Three  days  subsequent  to  this,  Haldimand  again 
wrote  the  Michilimackinac  commandant :  "Since  writ 
ing  my  letter  of  the  thirtieth  of  August,  I  have  had 
some  conversation  with  Mr.  de  Grosselier,  who  thinks 
it  will  be  practicable  to  send  some  trusty  Indians  into 
the  Illinois  with  letters  or  messages  to  the  missionary 
[there,  Father  Gibault]  and  by  that  means  to  learn  the 
true  state  of  the  country,  which  Mr.  de  Grosselier  tells 
me  might  be  conveyed  to  me  during  the  winter.  I 
have,  therefore,  thought  it  necessary  to  recommend  this 
matter  to  your  attention. "f 

The  first  counter-movement  attempted  by  De  Pey- 
ster  after  learning  that  the  "rebels"  had  gained  the  Illi 
nois,  was,  to  dispatch  a  person  to  St.  Joseph  (who  was 
well  acquainted  with  the  Illinois  Indians),  with  a 
speech  and  large  belt,  who  was  to  go  through  their  dif 
ferent  villages,  insisting  that  they  should  not  suffer 
his  Majesty's  enemies  to  keep  possession  of  their  coun 
try.  "This,  I  hope,"  wrote  the  commandant,  to  his 

*  Haldimand  to  De  Peyster,  Aug.  30,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 

t  Same  to  same,  Sept.  2,  1778.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       185 

Commander-in-Chief,  "will  have  a  better  effect  than  if 
I  had  an  expedition  to  send  against  the  rebels,  as  the 
Illinois  Indians  are  in  constant  dread  of  the  Ottawas 
and  other  nations  dependent  on  this  post,  —  as  they 
some  time  ago  earnestly  entreated  I  would  make  peace 
for  them,  which  I  effected  to  their  great  satisfaction."* 

The  next  thing  done  by  De  Peyster  after  hearing 
of  the  "rebel"  success  in  the  Illinois  was  to  endeavor, 
if  possible,  to  prevent  the  various  savage  tribes  de 
pendent  on  his  post  from  being  tampered  with  by  emis 
saries  sent  by  Clark ;  so  he  procured  a  large  belt  with 
directions  to  the  Menomonees,  Sacs,  Winnebagoes  and 
Sioux,  who  had  arrived  from  the  St.  Lawrence,  that  it 
be  taken  to  the  different  villages  of  the  various  nations 
which  had  been  employed  by  government  and  who  had 
been  so  long  protected  by  his  Majesty."  "It  is  my 
earnest  request,"  were  the  words  of  De  Peyster,  to  the 
assembled  savages  at  his  post,  "that  they  have  not  the 
least  connection  with  the  rebels,  but  keep  themselves 
quietly  at  home"  for  the  present.  With  this  specious 
speech  was  given  the  hint  that,  if  they  did  anything 
prejudicial  to  the  traders  among  them,  or  entered  into 
any  alliance  with  the  enemy,  goods  intended  for  them 
would  be  sent  back  to  Montreal  —  a  threat  which 
seemed  to  have  "great  force  with  the  Indians  present." 
"I  have,"  wrote  De  Peyster,  "as  much  as  possible  in 
stilled  into  the  Indians  the  idea  that,  although  the 
rebels  may  perhaps  be  able  to  make  a  show  of  presents 
at  first,  that  they  can  by  no  means  be  able  to  furnish 
the  different  nations  with  their  necessary  wants." 

An  estimate  made  by  the  Michilimackinac  com 
mandant  as  to  the  rapidity  with  which  a  light  canoe 

*De  Peyster  to  Haldimand,  Sept.  16,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


186       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

(such  an  one  as  was  then  dispatched  with  his  letter  to 
the  Commander-in-Chief)  might  be  urged  forward, 
gives  the  quickest  time  between  his  post  and  Montreal 
and  return.  He  thought,  if  the  crew  were  not  de 
tained  on  Lake  Huron  by  contrary  winds,  they  might 
reach  the  last-mentioned  place  in  eleven  days,  or  four 
teen  at  farthest.  Twenty-five  days  for  a  light  bateau- 
canoe,  manned  with  an  active  guide  and  eight  men 
would  be  sufficient  for  the  return  to  the  mouth  of 
French  river  on  Lake  Huron,  thence  to  Michilimacki- 
nac  ten  days  would  be  required.  The  weather  was 
usually  favorable  to  about  the  middle  of  November  at 
his  post  for  such  navigation. 

De  Peyster  now  began  to  revolve  in  his  mind 
whether  Indians  might  not,  at  once,  be  sent  down  the 
Mississippi  to  harrass  the  "rebels"  in  the  Illinois. 
However,  he  concluded  it  was  too  late  in  the  season 
for  much  to  be  accomplished. 

There  were  two  men  of  the  West,  who,  of  all  oth 
ers,  were  the  best  calculated  to  arouse  the  Indians  and 
lead  them  upon  such  an  enterprise.  These  were 
Langlade  ("the  zealous")  and  Gautier;  but  both  these 
men  were  below  at  this  time.  "The  Indians,"  wrote 
De  Peyster,  "have  already  declared  that  were  Gautier 
here  to  lead  them,  they  would  penetrate  the  Illinois 
country  this  winter.  As  I  suppose  you  will  also  send 
orders  to  Detroit  in  the  winter,  I  shall  send  off  an  ex 
press  to  be  ready  there,  as  my  Indians  will  know  the 
road,  and  I  shall  be  able  to  depend  upon  them  and  the 
person  I  shall  send  with  them." 

The  Major  thought  it  would  scarcely  be  in  his 
power  to  put  any  orders  for  the  movement  of  the  In 
dians  of  La  Bay  (Green  Bay)  into  execution ;  as  Lang- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       187 

lade  would  not  be  able  to  undertake  so  active  an  enter 
prise  (should  he  be  sent  for  that  purpose)  so  late  in 
the  season.* 

De  Peyster  had  not  yet  received  from  Hamilton 
notice  that  the  latter  would  soon  go  against  the  Illi 
nois  towns  in  person,  requesting  his  cooperation  in 
sending  savages  by  way  of  the  Illinois  river,  although 
he  afterward  declared  that  he  got  the  request  "about 
the  same  time."f 

*  Id.  —  I  have  not  used  the  exact  words  of  De  Peyster, 
but  have  endeavored  to  convey  his  meaning. 

tDe  Peyster  to  Haldimand,  Oct.  24,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


CHAPTER  XL 

f  ¥  AHE  establishing  by  Clark  of  two  garrisons  — 
those  of  Forts  Clark  and  Bowman  in  the  Illi 
nois,  was  followed  by  his  sending  Captain 
Helm  to  Fort  Sackville,  in  Vincennes,  to  command 
there.  "I  plainly  saw,"  subsequently  wrote  Clark, 
"that  it  would  be  highly  necessary  to  have  an  Ameri 
can  officer  at  that  post."  The  Colonel  had  entire  con 
fidence  in  Helm's  fitness  for  the  position ;  —  he  was 
past  the  meridian  of  life  and  was  well  acquainted  with 
the  Indian  character  and  disposition.  Two  men  of 
the  American  force  were  all  that  were  spared  to  go 
with  him,  reliance  being  placed  in  the  friendly  attitude 
of  the  citizens  of  the  place,  to  assist  in  defense  of  the 
fort;  hence,  "uncommon  pains"  were  taken  by  Clark 
in  all  regulations  concerning  the  relations  to  be  en 
tered  into  by  the  Captain  with  the  inhabitants  there, 
to  attach  them  to  American  interests. 

But  it  was  not  the  French  inhabitants  of  Vincennes 
only  who  were  to  be  dealt  with  in  a  friendly  spirit  — 
there  were  also  the  Piankeshaws  Indians  and  the  other 
savages  upon  the  river  —  all  must  be  conciliated  —  all 
made,  if  possible,  fast  friends.  Helm,  therefore,  be 
sides  being  appointed  to  the  command  of  Fort  Sack 
ville,  was  commissioned  Agent  of  Indian  Affairs  for 
the  Wabash  country.  In  the  first  half  of  August,  the 
Captain  set  out  for  his  post.*  He  was  cordially  re 
ceived  by  the  citizens,  —  thanks  to  the  effective  work 
of  Father  Gibault. 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  LXV. 
(188) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      189 

Fort  Sackville  was  found  in  possession  of  the  Vin- 
cennes  militia  and  was  at  once,  and  for  the  first  time, 
occupied  (though  it  could  scarcely  be  considered  in 
any  other  light  than  a  nominal  occupation)  by  Amer 
ican  troops  —  three  in  number :  one  commandant  and 
two  rank  and  file.  But  Captain  Helm  nominated  offi 
cers  of  the  militia  of  the  place,  so  that  he  was  soon 
able  to  form  a  respectable  garrison  out  of  four  com 
panies  organized,  and  numbering  something  over  two 
hundred  citizens,  with  J.  M.  P.  Legras  as  Major.  Of 
the  four  captains,  Francis  Bosseron  was  the  most  in 
fluential. 

Helm  found  the  fortification  a  fort  in  little  else  but 
a  name.  It  had,  however,  the  four  iron  cannon  sent 
Governor  Abbott  by  Rocheblave  from  Fort  Gage ;  but 
these  could  not  be  used  to  advantage,  they  were  so 
badly  mounted ;  besides,  the  commandant  had  not  with 
him  any  one  skilled  in  the  use  of  artillery. 

The  Captain  was  fortunate  in  reaching  Vincennes 
before  De  Celeron  could  present  his  belts  and  speeches 
to  the  savages  of  the  Wea  Indian  towns ;  for,  although 
the  latter  made  all  haste,  intent  on  carrying  out  the  in 
structions  delivered  to  him  by  Hamilton,  yet,  at  the 
head  of  the  Maumee,  he  was  detained  by  illness.  There 
were  just  arrived  Indian  reports  from  Vincennes  of 
the  presence  there  of  Virginians,  which  to  DeCeloron's 
mind  must  have  made  the  destruction  of  the  cannon  in 
Fort  Sackville  according  to  Hamilton's  orders, 
somewhat  of  a  doubtful  matter.  Other  rumors 
reached  the  ears  of  De  Celeron  while  at  the  Miamis ; 
one  concerning  the  harsh  treatment  of  some  of  the  in 
habitants  of  Vincennes  by  the  Virginians  particularly 
Legras,  who,  after  his  merchandise  had  been  seized  by 


190       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

them  had  (so  ran  the  report)  been  sent  to  the  Illinois. 
But  this  was  very  far  from  the  truth,  although 
promptly  sent  to  Hamilton.*  There  was  considerable 
merchandize,  however,  at  Miamis  from  Detroit,  which 
Beaubien  refused  to  let  go  across  the  portage  to  the 
waters  of  the  Wabash,  it  being  intended  for  Vin- 
cennes. 

When  De  Celeron  finally  reached  Wea,  he  learned 
that  the  "rebels"  had  already  secured  the  cannon  he 
had  been  instructed  to  render  useless.  Hamilton  ex 
pected  much  from  the  Wabash  Indians  in  view  of  their 
promises  recently  made  him  at  Detroit  by  warriors 
from  that  section.  And  De  Celeron  was  not  slow  in 
stirring  up  the  war-spirit  among  those  occupying  the 
villages  near  his  post 

Captain  Helm  was  fully  empowered  by  Clark  to 
treat  with  the  Wabash  Indians,  —  the  Colonel  having 
sent  letters  and  speeches  by  him  to  the  Kickepoos  and 
Piankeshaws  "desiring  them  to  lay  down  the  toma 
hawk."  But  if  they  did  not  choose  so  to  do,  they 
"should  behave  like  men  and  fight  for  the  English,  as 
they  had  done ;  but  they  would  soon  see  their  'Great 
Father,'  as  they  called  him,  given  to  the  dogs  to  eat." 
Clark  used  boasting  to  supply  the  place  of  men ;  soft 
speeches  to  the  Indians,  under  the  circumstances, 
would,  he  believed,  be  a  mistake.  At  the  same  time, 
he  wrote  them  that,  if  they  thought  of  giving  their 
hands  to  the  Big  Knives  to  give  their  hearts  also ;  and 
that  he  did  not  doubt  but  after  becoming  acquainted, 
that  they  would  find  the  Virginians  of  better  princi- 

*De  Celoron  to  Hamilton,  Aug.  28,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  Legras,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  left  in  command 
of  the  militia  of  Vincennes,  by  Governor  Abbott,  when  the 
latter  returned  to  Detroit. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       191 

pies  than  what  the  bad  birds,  the  English,  had  taught 
them  to  believe.* 

One  of  the  first  duties  to  fulfill  by  Helm  upon  his 
arrival  in  Vincennes  was  to  receive  all  Indians  of 
whatever  nation  who  desired  audience.  Some  Shawa- 
nese  on  their  way  to  the  Creek  Indians  were  early 
callers.  The  Captain  took  advantage  of  the  knowl 
edge  of  their  journey  to  send  to  the  principal  chief  of 
that  nation  a  letter  asking  him  to  keep  his  people  at 
home  —  not  to  let  them  go  against  the  Americans, 
adding  (which  was  not  all  true,  however,)  that  the 
Shawanese  and  Wabash  Indians  were  the  friends  of 
the  Virginians.  He  also  asked  him  not  to  give  ear  to 
what  he  might  be  told  by  the  English.  But,  as  the 
sequel  shows,  this  letter  was  never  delivered.f 

Captain  Helm  lost  no  time  in  arranging  for  a 
grand  council  with  the  Piankeshaws.  At  the  meeting, 
he  delivered  the  Colonel's  speech  and  the  wampum 
sent  by  the  American  commandant,  and  then  gave 
them  a  "talk"  of  his  own.  The  principal  chief  —  the 
"Big  Door"  —  gave  expression  to  the  views  of  his  na 
tion  after  some  consultation.  They  had  resolved  to 
take  the  Big  Knives  by  the  hand  and  would  conclude  a 
peace  with  them.  He  said  the  Americans  must  be 
warriors  and  no  deceivers,  or  they  would  never  have 
spoken  as  they  had.  They  liked  such  people.  "The 

*  Clark  to  Mason.  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp. 
38^0.  The  Colonel  gives  an  extended  relation  of  portions 
of  his  speed,  which  is  an  attempt  on  his  part  to  explain  to 
the  Piankeshaws,  in  hyperbolic  language,  the  nature  of  the 
war  then  existing  between  Britain  and  the  United  States  (pp. 
39,  40).  He  was  careful  to  refer  to  the  aid  given  by  France 
to  the  latter. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Jan.  24-28,  1779.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


192       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

English  were  liars  and  they  would  listen  to  them  no 
longer."  The  Big  Knife  was  in  the  right.  He  would 
tell  all  the  Indians  on  the  Wabash  to  bloody  their 
hands  no  more  for  the  English ;  and,  jumping  up  and 
striking  his  breast,  said,  he  was  a  man  and  a  warrior ; 
that  he  was  now  a  Big  Knife,  and  shook  the  hand  of 
Captain  Helm  —  his  example  being  followed  by  all 
present.*  As  a  result  of  this  council,  there  was 
friendship  with  the  savages  on  the  lower  Wabash.f 

Elated  with  his  success  in  dealing  with  the  Pian- 
keshaws,  Helm  endeavored  to  bring  about  an  under 
standing  with  the  up-river  savages.  Here,  however, 
he  was  foiled.  M.  De  Celeron  at  Wea,  counteracted 
any  effort  put  forth  by  him.  Although  a  Frenchman, 
De  Celeron  was  not  inclined  to  make  terms  with  the 
"rebels." 

French  traders  at  Vincennes  felt  aggrieved  at  the 
action  of  Beaubien,  in  retaining  their  goods  at  the 
Miamis,  and  they  made  representations  of  their  trou 
bles  to  Captain  Helm,  who  afterward  exerted  himself 
to  raise  men  for  an  expedition  to  re-take  their  goods, 
hoping  to  be  joined  at  Wea,  by  a  number  of  volunteers 
and  Indians ;  but  the  undertaking  fell  through ;  as  the 
up-river  Indians  did  not,  from  accounts,  seem  as 
friendly  as  he  had  been  led  to  believe  they  would 
prove. J 

*  Clark  to  Mason.  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p. 
36.  As  to  Clark's  account  of  Helm's  council  with  the  Pianke- 
shaws,  as  given  in  his  Memoir,  see  Appendix  to  our  narrative, 
Note  LXVI. 

t  Not,  however,  as  far  up  as  Wea,  as  Clark  affirms  in 
his  Memoir. 

J  See  the  information  obtained  from  Charles  Beaubien 
by  Hamilton  at  Detroit  concerning  the  Upper  Wabash  sav 
ages,  Appendix,  Note  LXVII. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       193 

"One  of  the  British  agents  [De  Celeron],  residing 
at  Wea,"  wrote  Clark,  subsequently,  "hurt  our  grow 
ing  interest  much,  the  Indians  in  that  quarter  being  in 
clined  to  desert  the  British  cause,  but  in  some  meas 
ure  kept  from  their  good  intention  by  that  person."* 

Clark  resolved,  if  it  could  be  done,  to  capture  De 
Celeron,  —  in  his  own  expressive  language,  "to  take 
him  off."  He  sent,  during  the  first  half  of  September, 
a  detachment  of  eighty  men  from  Kaskaskiaf  under 
command  of  Lieutenant  John  Bayley,  to  join  Captain 
Helm  at  Vincennes,  and,  if  possible,  surprise  him. 
The  Captain,  with  about  one  hundred  men  —  part 
"French  militia  and  Indians"  —  set  out  by  water  for 
that  purpose. £  But  De  Celeron  was  on  the  alert.  He 
heard  of  the  designs  against  him  and  at  once  collected 
a  few  Indians  that  he  could  depend  on,  determined  to 
give  battle  to  the  American  officer.  However,  the  lat 
ter  had  not  advanced  far  up  the  Wabash  before  the 
valorous  De  Celeron  concluded  to  make  good  his  es- 

*  Clark  to  Mason.  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  48. 

fThis  was  the  force  which  Hamilton  mentioned  (in  his 
letter  to  Haldimand  of  the  26th  of  September)  he  had  heard 
of  through  the  arrival  on  that  day  at  Detroit  of  Charles  Beau- 
bien,  from  the  Miamis  —  head  of  the  Maumee,  and  described 
as  "one  Clarke  with  80  men  being  at  Vincennes,  where  the 
French  receive  them  well." 

|  By  the  fifth  of  October,  Hamilton  had  received  an  ex 
aggerated  account  of  the  number  of  men  that  marched  under 
Helm :  "Mr.  Bellestre  who  has  been  sometime  amongst  the 
Spaniards  is  said  to  be  at  the  head  of  200  French  who  have 
joined  the  rebels  on  their  march:  100  from  the  Illinois, 
the  rest  from  Vincennes."  That  about  one-half  of  Helm's 
force  was  made  up  of  "French  militia"  of  Kaskaskia  and 
Vincennes,  there  can  be  no  doubt, 

13 


194       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

cape,  leaving  his  friendly  Indians  to  defend  the  Wea 
stockade  as  best  they  could,  or  meet  the  enemy  in  open 
field  if  they  chose  so  to  do.  The  savages  soon  as 
sembled  in  grand  council  to  determine  what  was  best 
to  be  done.  But  they  neglected  to  shut  the-  gate  of 
the  fort  or  to  keep  sentinels  posted,  not  supposing  the 
enemy  to  be  near.  In  the  hight  of  their  delibera 
tion,  Captain  Helm  entered  the  fortification  and  or 
dered  them  to  surrender.  Being  taken  entirely  by  sur 
prise,  little  or  no  resistance  was  offered ;  about  forty 
were  taken  prisoners;  but  these  were  soon  set  at  lib 
erty.  A  treaty  followed ;  and  the  Upper  Wabash  sav 
ages  were  conciliated  for  the  time  (only,  however,  for 
some  weeks)  to  "rebel"  interests. 

The  fort,  as  it  was  called,  which  had  fallen  so  eas 
ily  into  the  hands  of  Captain  Helm,  was  "a  miserable 
stockade,  surrounded  by  a  dozen  wretched  cabins 
called  houses."  The  Indians  in  the  vicinity  were  nu 
merous  —  about  a  hundred  cabins,  with  a  population 
of  nearly  five  hundred.  The  French  settlers  were  few 
and  of  course,  needed  not  many  arguments  to  be  ad 
vanced  by  the  militia  accompanying  Helm,  to  convince 
them  of  the  justice  of  the  cause  the  latter  had  es 
poused. 

The  American  flag  was  now  floating  at  Vincennes 
and  Wea  on  the  east  and  at  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia  on 
the  west,  marking  what  was  then  the  extreme  limits 
of  territory  which  had  fallen  under  military  sway  of 
Virginia ;  nevertheless,  it  had  been  secured  without  the 
shedding  of  a  drop  of  blood. 

Hamilton,  when  he  first  heard  of  De  Celeron's 
flight  "on  horseback,  from  Wea  to  the  Miamis,"  was 
disposed  to  be  lenient  in  his  remarks  as  to  the  event; 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       195 

"Mr.  De  Celeron's  expeditious  movement  rather  sur 
prises  me ;  but,  in  this  country,  where  indulgence  plen- 
iere  takes  place,  there  can  be  but  slender  confidence 
on  protestations  or  even  stronger  ties.  However,  his 
own  account  may  throw  a  different  light  on  his 
actions."*  .  .  .  But  subsequently  he  severely  crit 
icised  him  for  his  sudden  departure ;  —  he  could  "find 
no  excuse  for  his  extraordinary  conduct,  unless  his 
being  deserted  by  common  sense  or  common  courage," 
could  plead  his  cause.  "He  might  have  staid  in  per 
fect  security  a  few  leagues  from  .  .  .  [Wea], 
where  he  would  have  found  that  his  fears  were  en 
tirely  groundless  and  that  he  had  fled  from  a 
shadow. "f  But  Captain  Helm's  force  of  determined 
men  was  something  more  than  a  "shadow,"  as  the 
frightened  Frenchman  would,  had  he  refused  to  leave 
Wea,  doubtless  have  discovered. 

"On  the  fifth  of  October  [1778],  late  in  the  even 
ing,"  wrote  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  "Messieurs 
Charles  and  Nicholas  Gouin  came  to  Detroit,  the  latter 
[sent  as  an]  express  from  the  Miamis  with  an  account 
that  Mr.  De  Celeron  was  at  Wea  when  one  De 
Couagne  .  .  .  arrived  with  five  other  persons  hav 
ing  belts  and  speeches  from'  the  rebels  addressed  to  the 
Wabash  Indians  nearly  in  the  following  terms : 

"  'You  Indians  living  on  the  River  Wabash !  We 
are  not  come  with  design  of  taking  your  lands  from 
you ;  we  only  desire  to  pass  through  your  country  to 
Detroit  to  turn  out  your  Father  who  is  there ;  for  now 
your  late  Father,  the  King  of  France,  is  come  to  life 

*  Hamilton    to    Haldimand,    Oct.    1.    1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 

t  Same  to  same,  Dec.  4,  1778.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 


196       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

and  will  recover  the  country  he  lost  to  the  English. 
Here  are  several  belts  for  you  to  consider :  a  white  one 
for  the  French ;  a  red  one  for  the  Spaniards,  who  mean 
to  assist  them ;  a  blue  one  in  the  name  of  the  Colonies ; 
a  green  one  offering  peaceable  terms  from  the  Amer 
icans,  if  you  allow  them  to  pass  freely ;  and,  lastly,  a 
red  one  offering  you  war,  if  you  prefer  that.  We  de 
sire  you  to  leave  a  very  wide  road  for  us,  as  we  are 
many  in  number  and  love  to  have  room  enough  for 
our  march ;  for,  in  swinging  our  arms  as  we  walk,  we 
may  chance  to  hurt  some  of  your  young  people  with 
our  swords.'  ' 

"Mr.  De  Celeron,  as  I  am  informed,"  continued 
Hamilton,  "contented  himself  with  hearing  this  much 
and  without  waiting  to  hear  what  reply  the  Indians 
made  to  this  flourishing  speech,  mounted  his  horse  and 
rode  off  for  the  Miamis,  who  have  sent  a  chief  and 
some  men  to  meet  the  rebels,  I  suppose  with  friendly 
overtures,  as  they  are  reputed  but  a  dastardly  nation 
and  have  done  nothing  this  war,  though  treated  as  well 
as  the  bravest."* 

It  was  a  wise  policy  on  part  of  Captain  Helm  in 
sending  this  speech  in  advance,  so  far  as  conciliating 
the  Wea  savages  was  concerned,  especially  in  an 
nouncing  to  them  (although  it  was  far  from  his  inten 
tion)  his  determination  to  march  on  Detroit  ;f  but  De 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand. —  Haldimand  MSS.  As 
Couagne  and  his  five  companions  were  undoubtedly  favor 
able  to  American  interests,  it  is  highly  probable  their  repre 
sentations,  after  De  Celeron's  fight,  had  a  good  effect  upon 
the  Wea  savages.  It  is,  indeed,  not  impossible  that  the  fort 
gate  was  intentionally  left  open,  and  that  the  Indians  were 
willingly  captured. 

f  See  Appendix,  Note  LXVII,  concerning  this  speech. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       197 

Celeron  was  too  wary  to  throw  himself  into  the  arms 
of  "rebels."* 

After  three  months  of  occupation  of  Vincennes  by 
Captain  Helm,  it  became  suddenly  apparent  to  him 
that  all  was  not  well  with  affairs  up  the  Wabash. 
There  came  rumors  of  disaffection  among  the  Wea 
Indians.  More  alarming  however  than  this,  was  the 
report  that  the  British  were  on  their  way  to  re-take 
Fort  Sackville.  However,  because  of  the  lateness  of 
the  season,  the  Captain  was  disposed  to  be  skeptical  as 
to  such  a  movement  being  on  foot.  By  the  first  of 
December  news  came  which  seemed  to  confirm  what 
he  had  already  been  told;  still  he  did  not  think  it  of 
sufficient  reliability  to  justify  his  sending  an  express  to 
Clark  with  the  information.  But  the  month  had  not 
far  advanced  before  it  was  made  known  to  him  with 
certainty  that  the  enemy  in  large  numbers  was  ap 
proaching.  This  information  was  brought  to  him  by 
one  Fouche  a  Frenchman  residing  in  Vincennes.f 
His  garrison  of  seventy  men,  nearly  all  of  Towns 
people,  seemed  ready  to  defend  the  fort  to  the  last ;  and 
they  showed  much  zeal,  in  so  far  as  words  were  con 
cerned.  Finally,  the  American  commandant  dis 
patched  a  lieutenant  with  three  men  to  reconnoitre  up 
the  Wabash,  giving  him  written  instructions  to  watch 
for  the  English  and  to  hasten  back  with  his  intelli 
gence  when  any  was  gained. 

*  Concerning  the  march  of  the  detachment  sent  by  Clark 
against  Wea,  so  far  as  relates  to  the  journey  from  Kaskaskia 
to  Vincennes  or  the  return  from  Wea  to  the  Illinois,  par 
ticulars  are  wholly  wanting. 

t  Deposition  of  John  Cornwell  taken  at  Detroit,  July  28, 
1779.  —  Haldimand  MS.  .Also  a  P.  S.  to  the  same  by  Capt. 
R.  B.  Lernoult 


198       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Anxiously  did  Helm  await  the  return  of  the  four 
militia;  but  some  days  elapsed  and  they  had  not  yet 
made  their  appearance.  He  then  learned  they  had 
been  taken  prisoners.  On  the  seventeenth,  it  was  re 
ported  that  the  enemy  was  within  three  miles.  Then 
the  Captain  wrote  in  great  haste  to  Clark : 

"At  this  time  there  is  an  army  within  three  miles 
of  this  place.  I  heard  of  their  coming  several  days 
before,  and  I  sent  spies  to  find  out  the  certainty.  The 
spies  being  taken  prisoners,  I  never  got  intelligence 
till  they  [the  enemy]  got  within  three  miles  of  the 
town.  As  I  had  called  out  the  militia  and  had  all  as 
surance  of  their  integrity,  I  ordered  at  the  firing  of  a 
cannon,  every  man  to  appear;  but  I  saw  but  few. 
Captain  Bosseron  behaved  much  to  his  honor  and 
credit,  but  I  doubt  the  reliability  of  a  certain  gent. 
Excuse  haste,  as  the  army  is  in  sight.  My  determina 
tion  is,  to  defend  the  garrison  though  I  have  but 
twenty-one  men,  but  what  has  left  me.  I  refer  you 
to  Mr.  Williams  for  the  rest.  The  army  is  in  three 
hundred  yards  of  the  village.  You  must  think  how 
I  feel  —  not  four  men  that  I  can  really  depend  on,  but 
[I]  am  determined  to  act  brave.  Think  of  my  condi 
tion  !  I  know  it  is  out  of  my  power  to  defend  the 
town,  as  not  one  of  the  militia  will  take  arms,  though 
before  sight  of  the  army  [there  were]  no  braver  men. 
There  is  a  flag  at  a  small  distance.  I  must  concede."^ 

Two  men  —  one  an  American,f  the  other  a 
Frenchman  —  hurried  across  the  river,  urged  by  Helm 

*Helm  to  Clark  [Dec.  17,  1778].  —  Haldimand  MSS.  I 
have  not  attempted  to  give  the  exact  words  of  Helm;  but  I 
have  preserved  his  meaning  as  I  understand  it. 

f  Mr.  Williams,  the  same  mentioned  in  Helm's  letter.  He 
was  a  brother  of  Captain  John  Williams  of  Clark's  force. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       199 

to  make  all  possible  speed  to  Kaskaskia.  Immediately 
after,  all  but  three  of  the  militia  deserted  their  post. 
Then  it  was  that  the  Captain  was  summoned  to  sur 
render  — to  whom  ?  The  sequel  will  show. 

Turning  our  attention  from  the  Wabash  to  the 
Kentucky  settlements,  we  shall  discover  that,  during 
the  last  half  of  the  year  1778,  affairs  there  were  not 
encouraging.  It  had  been  conjected  when  Clark  left 
the  island  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  that  there  would  be 
no  cessation  of  savage  marauds.  The  times  were  in 
deed  perilous.  The  news,  however,  brought  by  Ken- 
ton,  of  the  success  of  the  Americans  against  the  Illi 
nois,  was  cheering. 

Although,  after  the  escape  of  Boone  from  the 
Shawanese  the  warriors  of  that  nation  thought  best  not 
to  immediately  march  against  Boonesborough,  yet  they 
did  not  relinquish  the  undertaking.  On  the  seventh 
of  September,  the  fort  was  beset  by  nearly  three  hun 
dred  Indians  and  ten  white  men,  —  the  whole  under 
the  command  of  Captain  (and  Interpreter)  Fontenoy 
De  Quindre,  an  "Indian  officer"  in  the  Indian  Depart 
ment  at  Detroit.  One  of  the  white  men  was  Captain 
and  Interpreter  Isidore  Chesne  of  the  same  depart 
ment.  On  the  eighteenth,  the  enemy  abandoned  the 
siege,  De  Quindre  going  with  the  Shawanese  to  their 
towns  north  of  the  Ohio.  The  loss  of  the  garrison 
was  two  men  killed  and  four  wounded.  The  enemy 
had  two  killed  and  three  wounded.  However,  the 
failure  of  the  Shawanese  in  their  attempts  against 
Boonesborough  did  not,  for  reasons  hereafter  ex- 

( "Bowman's  Journal,"  of  Feb.  20,  1779.  Department  of  State 
MSS.)  He  is  the  one  who  is  erroneously  mentioned  as  "Wil 
ling"  in  the  same  Journal  in  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  102. 


200       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


plained,  lessen  the  severity  of  savage  attacks  through 
out  the  settlements  generally;  and  their  numbers 
seemed  (strange  enough  to  the  settlers)  to  increase 
rather  than  diminish  as  the  winter  advanced. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

IT  was  only  a  short  distance  down  the  Detroit  river 
that  Hamilton  moved,  on  the  seventh  of  Oc 
tober,  1778,  on  his  enterprise  against  the  Illi 
nois,  before  he  made  his  first  camp.  "I  shall  observe 
once  for  all,"  are  his  subsequent  words,  "that  camp 
duty  was  as  strictly  attended  to  as  the  slender  know 
ledge  I  possessed  would  admit,  and  that  the  guards, 
pickets,  and  advanced  sentries  were  regularly  visited 
from  the  setting  the  watch,  which  was  usually  at  sun 
set,  till  broad  daylight;  that  the  boats  were  loaded, 
manned  and  arranged  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  per 
fectly  secured  within  our  sentries  every  night;  [and] 
that  the  Indians  camped  and  decamped  as  regularly 
as  could  be  wished."* 

On  the  ninth,  a  snow-storm  having  subsided,  it 
was  debated  whether  or  not  the  passage  of  the  lake 
(Erie)  from  the  mouth  of  Detroit  river  to  the  en 
trance  to  the  Maumee  should  be  hazzarded ;  but,  con 
sidering  the  advanced  season  and  that  contrary  winds 
or  the  freezing  of  the  lake  would  frustrate  his  design, 
Hamilton  resolved  "to  make  the  push."  The  distance 
across  is  thirty-six  miles;  and  it  was  noon  before 
the  swell  on  the  lake  had  fallen  sufficiently  for  the 
force  to  proceed. 

The  description  given  subsequently  of  the  voyage 
by  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  was  this :  "The  night 
proved  extremely  dark ;  the  head  boats  with  guides 
carried  lights  for  the  direction  of  those  astern.  About 
eleven  o'clock  the  wind  shifted ;  it  began  to  rain ; 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
(201) 


202      HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

a  heavy  swell  rolled  in ;  we  were  on  a  lee  shore ;  and 
all  was  at  stake :  what  I  suffered,  on  this  occasion, 
may  more  readily  be  conceived  than  expressed.  After 
rowing  some  time,  we  lay  on  our  oars  with  our  sterns 
to  the  swell,  till  we  judged  the  most  distant  boats 
could  discern  our  lights,  and  then  rowed  in  shore, 
when,  happily,  we  made  an  oozy  beach  within  a  mile 
of  the  entrance  of  the  Miamis  [that  is,  the  Maumee] 
river.  It  blew  so  hard  all  night  we  could  neither 
pitch  a  tent  or  make  a  fire,  and  yet  we  were  happy 
in  our  escape ;  for  if,  providentially,  we  had  not  passed 
an  extent  of  rocky  coast  before  the  storm  arose,  we 
had  all  inevitably  perished." 

"This  day,"  continues  Hamilton,  "Monseur  de 
Celeron  met  us  on  his  return.  He  made  his  report 
aloud  that  the  rebels  were  already  arrived  at  the 
Miamies  [head  of  the  Maumee].  I  affected  indiffer 
ence  thokgh  astonished  at  his  imprudence,  and  said 
T  had  already  heard  of  it.  I  ordered  him  to  proceed 
to  Detroit.^  It  soon  appeared  that  his  design  in  giving 
the  false  intelligence  was  deliberately  treacherous,  as 
he  had  been  industrious,  in  passing  the  Indian  settle 
ments  on  the  way,  to  spread  the  alarm.  I  apprised 
the  commandant  at  Detroit  of  this  message."* 

On  the  eleventh,  the  force  arrived  at  the  foot  of 
the  rapids  of  the  Maumee,  where  Hamilton  found 
Captain  Grant,  who,  in  the  sloop  Archangel,  had 
brought  fourteen  tons  of  provision  to  expedite  the 
journey  of  the  little  army.  On  this  day,  the  detach 
ment  of  the  King's  regiment  of  one  subaltern,  one 
sergeant  and  thirty-one  rank  and  file,  joined  Hamil 
ton,  f  The  next  day,  their  commander,  Lieutenant 

*Id. 

t  Same  to  same,  Oct.  14,  1778.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       203 

Ghourd,  "by  the  accident  of  his  piece  going  off, 
which  shattered  his  leg,"  was  obliged  to  return.  Dr. 
McBearth,  the  surgeon,  was  sent  back  with  him  in 
a  light  boat  to  Detroit,  where  he  suffered  amputation 
of  his  limb;  but  mortification  ensuing,  he  lost  his 
life.*  The  doctor  returned  subsequently,  overtook  the 
expedition,  and  went  on  with  it. 

The  Lieutenant  Governor  made  slow  progress. 
He  was  delayed  by  bad  weather.  His  first  resting- 
place  was  at  Rocher  de  Bout,  on  the  Maumee,  less 
than  four  miles  above  what  is  now  Perrysburgh, 
Ohio,  but  on  the  west  side  of  the  stream, f  which  point 
he  reached  on  the  thirteenth.^  The  water  in  the 
river  he  found  higher  than  usual  at  this  time  of  the 
year.  The  next  day,  he  got  up  the  greatest  part  of 
the  provisions  which  had  been  brought  by  Captain 
Grant. § 

A  considerable  number  of  Indians  had,  by  this 
time,  made  their  appearance  as  auxiliaries,  and  every 
one  was  in  the  best  of  spirits.  Late  in  the  evening 
a  trusty  savage  arrived,  who  had  been  sent  forward 
for  intelligence.  He  brought  an  account  that  the  prop 
ositions  of  the  "rebels"  at  Vincennes,  which  had  been 
made  by  them  to  the  Indians  had  been  rejected;  and 
that,  although  they  had  no  knowledge  of  the  lake  sav 
ages  marching  to  their  assistance,  they  answered  the 
Americans  with  a  determined  spirit.  This  information 

*  Same  to  same,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 

f  See  Washington-Irvine  Correspondence,  pp.  93,  355,  and 
accompanying  map. 

%  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Oct.  14,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 

§  Same  to  same,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


204       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

left  Hamilton  no  room  to  doubt  all  would  go  well  on 
his  arrival  upon  the  Wabash.* 

Here,  again,  Hamilton  wrote  the  Commander-in- 
chief  as  to  the  conduct  of  M.  de  Celeron.  "He  has 
acted,"  said  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  "in  a  manner 
very  unprecedented,"  and  which  he  hoped,  for  the 
honor  of  human  nature,  would  never  be  followed. 
"Treachery,  ingratitude,  and  perjury,"  he  said,  "are 
heavy  charges  to  lay  to  the  account  of  a  man  reputed 
a  man  of  honor,  but  I  am  bold  to  say  they  can  be 
but  too  well  supported."  "He  had  the  effrontery, " 
added  Hamilton,  "to  repeat  to  me  by  word  of  mouth 
and  in  hearing  of  the  people  in  my  bateau,  that  the 
rebels  were  at  the  Miamis  [although  they  had  not  ar 
rived  at  Quiatanon  (Wea)]  when  he  precipitately  left 
there,  bringing  with  him,  notwithstanding  his  haste, 
some  packs  of  peltry.  He  ranged  about  for  three  days 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Miamis  [Maumee]  river,  among 
the  Indians,  spreading  this  report,  which  however,  they 
did  not  credit."f 

Hamilton  now  got  news  of  the  return  to  the  Shaw- 
anese  country  from  the  attack  on  Boonesborough  of 
Lieutenant  Dequindre,  who  was  to  join  the  Lieutenant 
Governor,  on  the  march  of  the  latter,  with  others  who 
had  previously  gone  out  from  Detroit  ;£  and  that  one 
hundred  Shawanese  were  still  at  war.  Forty  "rebels" 
were  reported  as  being  at  Vincennes;  and  Hamilton 
wrote  the  Commander-in-chief  that  he  expected  these 

*  Same  to  same,  Oct.  14,  1778.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 

fid. 

t  Dequindre  did  not  join  Hamilton  after  the  siege  of 
Boonesborough.  Captain  Chesne,  however,  reached  the  Lieu 
tenant  Governor  while  the  latter  was  on  the  march. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      205 

would  call  for  help  from  Kaskaskia  as  soon  as  they 
heard  of  his  approach,  but  he  would  send  from  the 
head  of  the  Maumee,  on  his  arrival,  some  Indians  to 
cause  an  alarm  down  the  Wabash  as  far  as  that  place, 
in  hopes  this  might  divide  the  attention  of  the  Vir 
ginians  there.* 

By  the  twenty-fourth,  Hamilton  had  reached 
"Miamistown"  —the  head  of  the  Maumee  —  "after 
the  usual  fatigues  attending  such  a  navigation,  the 
water  being  [here]  remarkably  low."f  On  the  twenty- 
eighth,  he  wrote  that  he  had  hopes  of  passing  for 
ward,  on  that  day  —  "fifty-seven  days'  provisions  for 
three  hundred  men."  He  declared  the  savages  were 
in  good  health  and  temper  and  that  their  restraint  on 
their  passion  for  rum  had  improved  their  disposition. 
"Our  own  people,"  said  he,  "are  in  perfect  health 
and  spirits."  The  indecision  of  the  Wabash  Indians, 
was  attributed  by  the  Lieutenant  Governor  to  the  in 
fluence  of  interested  advisers.  He  believed  they  were 
only  waiting  the  motions  of  the  Lake  Indians  to  take 
an  active  part  against  the  "rebels." 

The  good  news  Hamilton  had  received  of  the 
war-like  attitude  of  the  Shawanese  and  the  account 
which  had  just  reached  him  of  so  large  a  force  of 
that  nation  being  upon  the  war-path,  induced  him  to 
send  them  from  "Miamistown"  a  quantity  of  ammu 
nition  as  a  reward  for  their  activity  and  to  aid  them 
against  the  Virginians.  He  had,  the  day  previous, 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Oct.  14  and  15,  1778.  —  Haldi- 
mand  MSS.  It  is  highly  probable  that  most  of  the  forty 
"rebels"  reported  as  being  at  Vincennes  were  the  men  forming 
the  detachment  sent  by  Clark  against  Wea,  but  who,  un 
doubtedly,  had  already  returned  to  Kaskaskia. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS, 


206       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

held  a  council  with  about  two  hundred  chiefs  and 
warriors,  and  he  declares  their  behavior  was  such 
as  he  wished.  "Since  it  is  likely,"  said  the  Lieutenant 
Governor,  "that  I  shall  pass  the  winter  to  the  south 
ward  of  Detroit,"  and  the  Indians  having  desired  him 
to  apprise  their  friends  of  the  fact,  he  would  have 
General  Haldimand  send  him  forward  orders  and  in 
structions  for  his  conduct.*  In  his  letter  to  the  Com 
mander-in-chief  at  this  date,  he  again  refers  to  the 
supposed  wrong-doings  of  De  Celoron.  "Every  in 
telligence  I  have  procured,"  he  wrote,  "confirms  my 
suspicion  of  M.  de  Celoron's  treachery."f 

While  the  Lieutenant  Governor  was  at  "Miami- 
town,"  Louis  Chevalier  reached  there  from  St.  Joseph, 
with  two  chiefs  and  thirteen  warriors  —  Pottawatta- 
mies;  "this,"  wrote  Hamilton  afterward,  "and  his 
future  behavior  may  efface  his  [Chevalier's]  former 
conduct."  One  of  the  Pottawattamie  chiefs,  it  seems, 
had  on  his  person  a  French  medal,  which,  in  the 
presence  of  all  the  savages  there,  numbering  about 
two  hundred,  he  gave  up  to  the  Lieutenant  Gover 
nor.  The  latter  regarded  the  arrival  of  Chevalier  as 
"a  step  of  consequence  to  the  service  at  present."  He 
added  that  he  had  been  joined  by  several  savages  on 

*  Same  to  same,  Oct.  28,  1778.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 
"Here  [at  'Miamis  town']  we  met  several  tribes  of  the  Indians 
previously  summoned  to  meet  here,  and  held  several  confer 
ences  ;  made  them  presents,  and  dispatched  messngers  to  the 
Shawanese,  as  well  as  [to]  the  nations  on  our  route,  inviting 
them  to  join  us,  or  at  least  watch  the  motions  of  the  rebels 
upon  the  frontiers ;  for  which  purpose,  I  sent  them  ammuni 
tion."  —  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain 
MSS. 

f  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Oct.  28,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       207 

his  way  out;  and  he  was  persuaded  he  should  get  as 
many  as  he  could  "manage  or  wish  for."* 

Having  passed  the  carrying  place,  or  portage,  of 
nine  miles,f  "we  arrived,"  is  Hamilton's  subsequent 
record,  "at  one  of  the  sources  of  the  Wabash,  called 
the  Little  River."f  The  stream  was  so  uncommonly 
low  that  bateaux  could  not  have  floated  but  for  the 
fact  that,  some  distance  below,  a  beaver  dam  kept 
up  the  water.  This  they  cut  through  to  give  a  pas 
sage  to  their  boats,  and,  having  taken  in  the  lading 
at  the  landing,  they  passed  them  all.§  The  Lieutenant 
Governor  now  sent  forward  twenty-two  wagons  with 
provisions  and  stores,  under  the  command  of  Lieu 
tenant  Duvernot,  who  was  ordered  to  encamp  at  the 
forks  of  the  Wabash  and  there  remain  until  the  ar 
rival  of  the  main  force,  or  until  further  orders.  This 
was  on  the  first  of  November.  || 

The  numerical  strength  of  Hamilton's  little  army 
was  now  nearly  as  follows :  the  detachment  from  the 

*  Id.  Also  same  to  same,  Nov.  1,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  Hamilton's  order  to  Chevalier  to  raise  Pottawattamies 
and  conduct  them  to  the  head  of  the  Maumee,  was  dated  Oc 
tober  15th. 

f  In  crossing  the  portage,  there  were  ten  carts  employed : 
there  were  also  six  carriages ;  two  with  four  wheels  to  trans 
port  the  bateaux,  and  four  with  two  wheels  for  the  pirogues. 
Captain  McLeod's  company  took  over  a  part  of  the  provisions; 
the  rest  got  over  in  six  days  —  from  the  twenty-ninth  of 
October  to  the  fifth  of  November.  ("Report  of  Henry  Duver- 
net,  Second  Lieutenant  of  Artillery."  —  Haldimand  MSS., 
where  the  wrong  months  are  mentioned  in  giving  the  dates.) 

J  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
He  gives  for  "Wabash"  —  "Ouabache" ;  and  for  "Little 
River"  —  "Petit  Riviere." 

§  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6.  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 

|j  Same  to  same,  Nov.  1,  1778.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 


208       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

King's  (Eighth)  regiment,  non-commissioned  officers 
included,  thirty-two;  with  the  artillery  were  two  gun 
ners,  four  of  the  King's  (Eighth)  regiment,  and 
seventeen  from  the  two  Detroit  militia  companies; 
—  the  latter  companies  had  each  forty-four,  officers 
included.  Lamothe's  company  numbered  forty-two. 
There  were  forty  Ottawas,  twenty  Chippewas,  four 
Wyandots,  thirty  Pottawattamies  (of  whom  fifteen 
were  from  St.  Joseph),  and  thirty  Miamis  Indians: 
in  all,  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  whites  and  one 
hundred  and  twenty-four  savages  —  an  entire  force  of 
three  hundred  and  nine  men.*  We  were  assured  by 
the  Lieutenant  Governor  that  women  are  not  included 
in  this  his  "Return"  of  the  savages. 

The  portage  which  Hamilton  had  just  crossed  at 
tracted  his  attention.  "This  carrying-place,"  he  wrote, 
"is  free  from  any  obstructions  but  what  the  careless 
ness  and  ignorance  of  the  French  have  left  and  would 
leave  from  generation  to  generation.  An  intelligent 
person,  at  a  small  expense,  might  make  it  as  fine  a 
road  as  any  within  twenty  miles  of  London.  The 
woods  are  beautiful ;  [there  are]  oak,  ash,  beech,  nut 
wood,  very  clear  and  of  a  great  growth."  He  declares 
he  found  in  a  ridge  near  the  road,  a  sea  fossil.  "To 
find,"  said  he,  "marine  productions  on  this  hauteur 
des  terres,  is,  to  my  mind,  more  curious  than  their 
being  found  in  the  Alps.  There  are  no  mountains  in 
view,  from  Detroit  to  this  place,  so  these  fossils  can- 

*  Moses,  in  his  Illinois:  Historical  and  Statistical,  vol. 
I,  p.  154,  says :  "With  a  force  of  thirty  regulars,  fifty  French 
volunteers,  and  four  hundred  Indians,  he  [Hamilton]  started 
down  the  Wabash,"  But  this  estimate  is  clearly  erroneous. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       209 

not  readily  be  accounted  for  from  volcanoes,  of  which 
there  is  no  trace  to  be  observed."* 

As  yet  no  Shawanese  had  joined  Hamilton's  force; 
however,  now  a  war  party  of  that  nation  under  Cap 
tain  Alexander  McKee  was  hourly  expected,  but  which, 
it  seems,  did  not  arrive.  McKee  had  written  that  a 
few  of  that  tribe  had  "attempted"  a  fortification  built 
by  the  rebels  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  but  only  suc 
ceeded  in  destroying  "a  parcel  of  tools."  "I  shall," 
wrote  Hamilton,  "endeavor  to  cut  off  the  communica 
tion  from  that  place  to  the  Illinois,  and  perhaps  shall 
find  the  taking-  that  fort  an  object  well  worth  atten 
tion."  McKee  subsequently  joined  the  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  while  the  latter  was  moving  down  the  Wabash 
—  proving  himself  a  valuable  assistant  to  Deputy 
Agent  Hay. 

Hamilton  had  not  only  been  informed  that  the 
"rebels"  had  built  a  fort  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio, 
but  he  had  what  was  to  him  much  better  news,  that 
the  Miami  Indians  of  Eel  river  would  join  his  force. 
"We  have  had,"  he  continued,  "pretty  sharp  frosts,  but 
fine  clear  weather.  By  damming  up  the  water  of  the 
Little  River  four  miles  below  the  landing,  the  water 
is  backed  and  raised  an  inch  here.  At  the  dam,  it 
rose  an  inch  the  first  hour.  The  beavers  had  worked 
hard  for  us,  but  we  were  obliged  to  break  down  their 
dam  to  let  the  boats  pass  that  were  sent  forward  to 
clear  the  river  and  a  place  called  the  'Chemin  Con 
vert.'  "f  The  beaver,"  Hamilton  subsequently  de 
clared,  "are  never  molested  at  this  place  by  the  traders 

*  Hamilton    to    Haldimand,    Nov.    1,    1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 
fid 
14 


210       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

or  Indians  and  soon  repair  their  dam,  which  is  a 
most  serviceable  work  upon  this  difficult  communica 
tion."* 

Hamilton,  as  he  found  himself  upon  the  waters 
of  the  Wabash,  again  revolved  in  his  mind  what  he 
had  learned  of  the  flight  of  the  commandant  at  Wea; 
and  once  more  he  unburdened  himself  concerning  the 
matter  to  the  Commander-in-chief:  "Mr.  de  Celoron 
has  a  brother  in  the  rebel  service,  and  I  have  no 
room  to  doubt  his  treasonable  design  in  spreading 
reports  that  might  delay  us  till  next  spring,  when 
reinforcements  from  the  Colonies  might  effectually 
frustate  our  attempts  to  regain  the  Illinois  or  keep  the 
Indians  in  our  interest.  Double  pay,  I  take  it,  has 
been  his  seducer;  and  as  to  his  reward,  I  hope  to 
have  your  Excellency's  orders.  In  the  meantime  I 
have  ordered  his  suspension. "f  This,  seemed,  for  a 
while  to  relieve  the  thoughts  of  the  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor. 

Hamilton  started  with  his  regulars  down  Little 
river,  with  seven  loaded  boats,  having  with  him 
seventy-two  Ottawas.  The  next  day  —  the  second 
of  November  —  the  Pottawattamies  and  the  Miami 
Indians  under  Major  Hay,  with  the  last  of  the  bateaux, 

*  Same  to  same,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS.  "Between 
the  Miamie  [Maumee]  and  the  Ouabache  [Wabash]  there  are 
beaver  dams,  which  when  water  is  low,  passengers  break 
down  to  raise  it,  and  by  that  means  pass  easier  than  they 
otherwise  would.  When  they  the  [travelers]  are  gone,  the 
beavers  come  and  mend  the  breach ;  for  this  reason  they  have 
been  hitherto  sacred,  as  neither  Indians  nor  white  people 
hunt  them."  —  Road  from  Detroit  to  the  Illinois,  etc.  —  Haldi- 
mand  MSS. 

f  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Nov.  1,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      211 

followed.*  All  reached,  finally,  a  swamp  then  known 
as  "Les  Volets,"  which  was  passed  with  great  labor. 
Beyond  tm's,  they  came  to  the  little  "Riviere  a  Boete," 
which  joins  the  one  they  had  descended.  The  shal- 
lowness  of  both  streams  obliged  them  to  build  a 
dam  across  each,  by  which  means  the  water  was 
backed  into  the  swamp.  When  there  was  a  sufficient 
accumulation,  they  cut  their  dykes  and  floated  all 
their  boats  down  the  channel.  The  same  obstacle 
occurred  at  Riviere  a  T  Anguile  (Eel  river)  and  the 
same  work  had  to  be  done.f 

In  the  progress  of  the  expedition  down  the  Wabash 
difficulties  increased.  The  setting  in  of  the  frost 
lowered  the  river ;  the  floating  ice  cut  the  men  as 
they  worked  in  the  water  to  haul  the  boats  over 
shoals  and  rocks.  The  bateaux  were  damaged  and 
had  to  be  repeatedly  unloaded  "caulked  and  payed." 
Ninety-seven  thousand  pounds  of  provisions  and  stores 
had  to  be  carried  by  the  men,  in  which  the  Indians 
assisted  cheerfully  when  the  boats  were  to  be  lightened. 
It  was  sometimes  a  day's  work  to  get  the  distance  of 
half  a  league.  It  was  necessary  to  stop  frequently 
at  the  Indian  villages  to  have  conferences  with  the 
savages,  furnish  them  with  necessaries,  and  engage  a 
few  to  accompany  the  expedition.  At  length,  the 
force  got  into  a  good  depth  of  water,  a  fall  of  rain 
having  raised  the  river;  but  this  advantage  was 
succeeded  by  fresh  difficulties,  the  frost  becoming  so 
intense  as  to  freeze  the  river  quite  across ;  however, 
by  hard  labor,  the  men  made  their  way  onward. J 

*Id. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
Id. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

A  I  A  HE  arrival  of  Hamilton  at  Wea  was  not  attended 
with  any  demonstration  of  surprise  or  hostil 
ity  on  part  of  the  Indians  present.  They  knew 
of  his  approach  and  remained  passive.  "Since  my 
leaving  Detroit,"  said  the  Lieutenant  Governor  in  writ 
ing  to  his  superior  officer,  "  I  have  been  joined  on  the 
way  by  savages  from  different  quarters  —  the  Ottawas 
of  the  Grand  Glaize  [now  known  as  the  Auglaize 
river],  the  Pottowattamies  of  St.  Joseph,  the  Miamis 
of  Riviere  a  1'Auguile ;  the  Pottawattamies  of  Shippe- 
con,  the  Ouiatanons  [Weas],  and  lastly  the  Kickapoos. 
Their  number  is  small,  not  amounting  to  two  hundred ; 
but  I  shall  be  sorry  to  have  the  number  increased,  as 
the  expense  of  provisions  must  be  considerable,  and  this 
wretched  place  is  little  capable  of  furnishing  a  supply." 
Having  an  eye  single  to  the  prospects  ahead  —  a  large 
reinforcement  of  savages,  especially  Shawanese,  and 
of  capturing  Fort  Sackville  and,  possibly,  going  into 
winter  quarters  in  Vincennes,  —  it  was  with  no  little 
concern,  evidently,  that  the  Lieutenant  Governor 
viewed  the  coming  prospects :  "We  are  told  they  are 
in  a  miserable  condition  at  Post  Vincennes  for  want  of 
provisions,  the  last  year's  crop  having  sprouted  on 
the  ground.  They  have  sent  to  the  Illinois  for  seed 
grain." 

Hamilton  informed  General  Haldimand  that  his 
savages  were  on  good  terms  with  each  other,  —  a  mat 
ter  of  much  importance,  as  dissensions  would  have 
seriously  impeded  his  progress.  He  also  wrote  that 
the  accounts  of  the  strength  of  the  rebels  at  Vincennes 

(212) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      213 

varied  so  much  that  he  was  at  a  loss  to  form  a  judg 
ment  of  it.  However,  he  did  not  believe  it  to  be  such 
as  should  cause  the  least  dread. 

On  the  third  of  December,  some  people  from  Detroit 
reached  Hamilton  at  Wea.  By  a  letter  they  brought 
him,  he  learned  that  Mr.  Macomb,  a  merchant  of  the 
place  first  mentioned,  had  forwarded  some  Indian  goods 
to  the  Miami  fort  at  the  head  of  the  Maumee,  agree 
able  to  directions  left  him  by  the  Lieutenant  Governor 
before  starting  on  his  enterprise,  but  then  were,  "not 
withstanding  any  order  that  may  have  been  given  for 
the  furtherance  of  his  merchandise  from  Deer  Island, 
fifty  bateau-loads  at  that  place."  Hamilton  took  the 
liberty  of  mentioning  this  to  his  superior  officer  at 
Quebec,  as  the  supplying  of  all  the  Indians  within  his 
reach  would  depend  greatly  on  the  speedy  arrival  of 
goods  at  Detroit  early  in  the  spring.  "We  are,"  said 
he,  "nearly  exhausted  at  present,  though  we  do  our  best 
to  content  the  savages  at  little  expense.  Arms,  in  par 
ticular,  there  is  a  great  demand  for." 

One  matter  was  looked  upon  by  Hamilton  with 
considerable  disquietude  —  the  progress  the  "rebels" 
were  making  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio.  But  he  consoled 
himself  that,  by  what  he  could  learn,  if  there  was  any 
fort  there,  "it  was  very  insignificant  in  its  present 
state."  As  to  Wea,  he  wrote  dispondingly,  "The  fort 
(as  it  is  called)  at  this  place  is  a  miserable  stockade, 
surrounded  by  a  dozen  wretched  cabins  called  houses. 
The  Indians  hereabouts  are  numerous,  there  appear 
ninety-six  of  their  cabins,  which,  allowing  five  even  to 
a  house  makes  the  number  four  hundred  and  eighty." 
"The  French  settlers,"  continues  the  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor,  "are  few  and  as  inconsiderable  as  debauchery 


214       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

and  idleness  can  make  them.  As  to  their  attachments, 
it  is  difficult  to  pronounce.  Interest,  I  believe,  is  the 
Grand  Monarch  with  them;  however,  I  have  formally 
administered  to  them  the  oath  of  fidelity  to  his  Britan 
nic  Majesty,  and  left  in  the  care  of  one  honest  man 
.the  St.  George's  flag,  to  be  hoisted  on  Sundays  and 
holidays,  giving  the  Indians  to  understand  it  was  a 
signal  of  his  Majesty  having  resumed  his  rights  and 
again  taken  them  under  his  protection."* 

In  council  with  the  Indians  at  Wea,  the  British 
commander  destroyed  the  copy  which  had  been  fur 
nished  him  of  the  "grant  —  or,  rather,  deed  of  sale"  — - 
made  over  three  years  previous  by  the  Piankeshaws 
to  the  Wabash  Land  Company  —  of  two  large  tracts 
of  land  lying  on  both  sides  of  the  Wabash  below  Wea. 
He  assured  the  savages  present  that  the  transaction 
was  contrary  to  the  express  desire  of  the  British  king 
and  without  the  consent  of  the  principal  chiefs  con 
cerned,  —  the  Indians  of  the  Wabash  were  now  to  con 
sider  those  lands  as  restored  to  them  by  order  of  his 
Majesty.f 

While  Hamilton  was  at  Wea,  the  Indian  chiefs 
who  had  received  the  American  colors  from  Captain 
Helm,  "came  in  from  their  hunting,  acknowledged 
their  error,  gave  up  the  flags,  and  accused  Monsieur 
de  Celoron  of  having  deserted  them ;  besides,  that  he 
never  distributed  to  them  the  goods  entrusted  to  him 
for  the  Indians.":); 

There  was  one  piece  of  information  received  by  the 
Lieutenant  Governor  from  the  hands  of  those  recently 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  4,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 

t  See  Appendix,  Note  LXVIII. 

|  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       215 

from  Detroit  which  bore  heavily  upon  his  mind;  so 
he  wrote  the  Commander-in-chief:  "A  letter  from 
Mr.  Gary,  the  deputy  sheriff  at  Montreal,  acquaints 
me  that  some  legal  process  has  been  commenced  against 
Mr.  Dejean  for  acting  under  my  direction  in  regard 
to  criminal  matters.  I  beg  leave  to  recommend  him 
to  your  Excellency's  protection  as  a  man  who  has  cre 
ated  enemies  by  doing  his  duty  and  who  has  had  the 
misfortune  to  fall  from  good  circumstances  into  indi 
gence.  I  hope  I  shall  be  responsible  for  any  malver 
sation  of  his,  as  he  has  only  acted  by  my  orders,  and 
I  have  had  reason  to  be  satisfied  with  his  behavior  as  an 
honest  man  and  loyal  subject.  Should  any  complaint 
against  myself  be  lodged  judicially,  I  am  perfectly 
at  ease,  persuaded  your  Excellency  will  allow  me  to 
vindicate  my  conduct  without  encountering  the  chicane 
of  the  law."* 

Hamilton  kept  steadily  in  view  the  words  of  Haldi- 
mand  as  to  the  propriety  of  sending  out  parties  of 
Indians  to  cut  the  communication  so  much  desired  by 
the  "rebels"  to  be  kept  open  between  Fort  Pitt  and 
the  Mississippi  river.  But  now  the  Lieutenant  Gover 
nor  had  an  expensive  scheme  in  his  mind  to  aid  the 
savages.  As  far  as  he  could  judge,  it  would  be  prac 
ticable  to  establish  a  post  and  build  a  fort  in  any  part 
of  the  Indian  country  eastward  of  the  Mississippi  as 
far  as  the  Ohio;  but,  for  this,  aids  of  men  and  mer 
chandize  would  be  necessary,  to  support  such  an  under 
taking  as  well  as  to  keep  up  the  good  disposition  of 
the  Indians.  The  savages  with  him  at  Wea  living 
in  the  Wabash  country,  gave  him  their  promise  to 
raise  all  their  warriors  during  the  next  spring  "to 

*Same  to  same,  Dec.  4,  1778.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 


216       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

spread  themselves  in  all  directions  "in  their  attacks 
upon  the  frontier  settlements  of  the  Americans.  "I  have 
recommended  to  them,"  are  the  words  of  the  com 
mander  to  his  superior,  "the  example  of  the  Lake 
Indians  for  courage  and  humanity.'' 

But  Hamilton  could  not  give  Haldimand  before 
leaving  Wea,  any  satisfactory  idea  as  to  the  steps  he 
would  take  after  proceeding  onward  toward  Vincennes. 
"The  rigor  of  the  season,"  said  he,  "which  has  in  some 
places  frozen  the  river  quite  across ;  the  delays  occa 
sioned  by  the  lowness  of  the  water ;  the  repairs  nec 
essary  for  our  craft ;  and  the  usual  tardiness  of  the 
Indians,  who,  being  our  main-spring,  must  be  attended 
to;  —  all  conspire  to  the  tediousness  of  the  journey." 
"The  health  and  good  temper,"  he  added,  "of  all  the 
various  colors  and  characters  that  compose  our  little 
band,  give  me  encouragement  to  hope  the  best."* 

It  was  in  the  after  part  of  the  fourth  of  December, 
that  Hamilton  left  Wea  to  continue  his  march  down 
the  Wabash.  A  reconnoitering  party  from  the  main 
force,  seized,  on  the  fifteenth,  the  lieutenant  and  three 
men  sent  by  Captain  Helm  from  Fort  Sackville  for 
intelligence. 

The  American  officer  acquitted  himself  but  poorly, 
—  "having  taken  so  little  precaution  as  to  be  surprised 
himself,"  says  Hamilton. y  The  officer  had  in  his 
pocket,  two  commissions,  —  one  from  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  Abbott,  the  other  from  Colonel  Clark. J  "He 
*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  4,  1778.  —  Haldimand 

MSS; 

y  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  18-30th,  1778.  —  Haldi- 
:rr;:d  MSS 

•;  i ;.-.::-,:; ten  TO  H-idirrand,  July  G,   1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 

KciiiiiSlon  d  lis  that  the  lieutenant  was  "ir,   the  pay  of  Con- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      217 

showed  no  apprehension  of  being  hanged  on  the  next 
tree,"  says  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  "which  he  cer 
tainly  deserved ;  and  observing  the  savages  offered  him 
no  violence,  he  was  presently  quite  at  his  ease.* 

From  his  prisoners,  the  British  commander  learned 
that  Captain  Helm  had  permitted  "almost  all  his  peo 
ple  to  return  to  their  homes,"  —  depending  for  the  de 
fence  of  Vincennes  on  the  French  militia,  "who  had 
all  taken  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  States."f  The  arms 
of  the  lieutenant  and  his  three  men  were  given  to  the 
Indians.  Hamilton  declares  he  did  not  proceed  vigor 
ously  with  his  prisoners,  wishing  to  gain  the  Vin 
cennes  people  by  lenity,  and  apprehensive  that  an  in 
stance  of  severity  might  arouse  the  ferocity  of  the 
savages,  which  he  wished  of  all  things  to  avoid.J 

Having  learned  from  his  prisoners  the  state  of 
things  at  Yincennes  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  on  the 
sixteenth,  sent  off  two  parties  of  Indians  with  each 
an  "Indian  officer,"  with  instructions  to  lie  on  the  roads 
leading  from  that  town  to  the  Illinois  and  to  the  Falls 
of  the  Ohio  —  one  on  each  side  of  the  Wabash,  to  in 
tercept  any  intelligence  of  his  arrival  that  might  be  sent 
to  those  places.  They  had  orders  to  keep  their  sta- 

gress."  This,  of  course,  was  erroneous.  In  his  letter  to 
Haldimand  last  cited,  the  Lieutenant  Governor  confuses  mat 
ters:  "He  [the  lieutenant  sent  out  by  Helm]  was  furnished 
with  two  commissions :  one  from  Lieut.  Gov.  Abbott,  the 
other  from  the  commandant  for  Congress." 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  18-30th,  1778.  —  Haldi 
mand  MSS. 

t  Id.  The  information  regarding  Capt.  Helm  permitting 
"almost  all  his  people  to  return  to  their  homes,"  related, 
really,  to  the  return  to  the  Illinois  of  the  men  sent  out  by 
Clark  against  Wea. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6.  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


218       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

tions  till  they  should  discover  the  English  flag  flying 
over  Fort  Sackville,  and  to  secure  any  messengers  and 
their  letters,  but  to  do  no  violence  to  the  persons  who 
might  be  captured.* 

Major  Hay,  also,  was  detached  with  Captain  La- 
mothe's  company,  Lieutenant  Duvernet  of  the  Royal 
Artillery,  with  the  six-pounder,  and  the  regulars  of 
the  King's  regiment  to  fall  down  the  river  and  enter 
Vincennes.  Hay  had  with  him  Antoine  Bellefeuille 
(the  interpreter),  and  several  chiefs  of  the  different 
nations  who  formed  a  part  of  Hamilton's  force,  to 
conciliate  the  Piankeshaws  residing  in  the  town,  and 
to  show  the  French  what  they  might  expect  if  they 
attempted  to  resist.  "Had  our  whole  force  moved 
forward  together,"  says  Hamilton,  "it  would  probably 
have  been  impossible  to  have  restrained  the  savages 
from  destroying  the  settlement.  As  it  was,  the  young 
men  took  alarm  that  they  should  have  no  share  in  the 
business  and  threw  themselves  hastily  into  their  canoes 
to  follow.  They  were,  however,  prevailed  upon  to 
return. "f 

Major  Hay  was  given  orders  to  secure,  if  possible, 
the  craft  lying  before  the  place  by  sending  a  party  in 

*  Id. ;  also  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  18-30th,  1778.  — 
Haldimand  MSS.  Hamilton,  in  the  first  mentioned  letter, 
speaks  of  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  as  the  place  where  (at  the 
time  of  his  approaching  Vincennes)  the  "rebels"  had  a  fort 
and  a  number  of  families  had  lately  come  to  settle.  He  refers 
in  his  letters  to  Haldimand  of  Nov.  1  and  Dec.  4,  1778,  as 
well  as  in  that  of  July  6,  1781,  doubtless,  to  the  defensive 
work  on  the  island ;  as  the  new  fort  to  be  built  on  the  main 
land  was,  when  his  informants  were  there,  only  just  com 
menced. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  18-30,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. ;  and  same  to  same,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       219 

the  night  in  boats  to  pass  the  town  and  stop  any  people 
who  should  attempt  to  escape  by  water.*  A  placard 
was  sent  to  the  inhabitants,  cautioning  them  to  avoid 
acting  in  the  offensive,  as  the  consequences  would  be 
fatal  to  them.f  If,  as  Hamilton  expected,  there  was 
not  any  resistance  made,  and  that  Hay  found  the  re 
port  of  the  prisoners  to  be  true,  he  was  to  order  the 
St.  George's  ensign  to  be  hoisted  at  the  fort  as  a  signal 
for  the  parties  before  sent  out  to  join  him.  He  was 
likewise  empowered  to  receive  the  submission  of  the 
French  inhabitants  who  should  lay  down  their  arms ; 
but,  should  he  find  that  the  "rebels"  had  been  rein 
forced,  he  was  to  take  post  to  the  best  advantage  pos 
sible,  send  off  an  express  to  the  Lieutenant  Governor, 
and  await  his  arrival. 

Having  taken  these  precautions,  the  British  com 
mander,  on  the  seventeenth,  fell  down  the  river  from 
the  distance  of  seven  leagues.  It  snowed  and  blew 
fresh  from  daybreak  till  one  o'clock,  when  to  the  sur 
prise  of  Hamilton,  he  plainly  saw  the  "rebel"  flag 
was  still  flying  at  the  fort.  He  concluded  the  Amer 
ican  commander  had  been  reinforced ;  and  he  felt  cer 
tain  such  was  the  case,  upon  finding  Lieutenant  Schief- 
felin,  with  all  the  boats  lying  in  a  little  cove  about  a 
mile  above  the  town.  But  he  soon  learned  the  true 
state  of  affairs. 

Captain  Alexis  Maisonville  and  Captain  McLeod 
were  ordered  to  land  their  men  —  the  Detroit  volunteer 
militia,  leaving  one  man  to  each  boat  as  a  guard,  and 
march  slowly  towards  the  town.  At  the  same  time,  a 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  18-30th,  1778.  —  Haldi- 
mand  MSS. 

t  Id.  —  Corroborated  by  same  to  same,  July  6,  1781.  — 
Germain  MSS. 


220       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

flanking  party  was  ordered  forward,  as  the  brushwood 
was  thick  on  the  left  of  the  line  of  march. 

When  Hamilton  came  in  sight  of  the  town,  he 
posted  sentries  and  halted  his  men.*  Just  then  a  mes 
senger  from  Major  Hay  reached  him,  desiring  the 
sending  to  him  of  the  St.  George's  flag,  also  informing 
the  Lieutenant  Governor  that  his  men  were  advan 
tageously  posted,  and  that  the  gun  was  mounted.  The 
flag  was  sent  as  required ;  and  the  commander  at  once 
started  to  join  the  Major,  whom  he  soon  found  with 
his  men  drawn  up  and  the  French  militia  of  the  village 
bringing  in  their  arms. 

Hay  informed  Hamilton  that  the  American  com 
mandant  was  deserted  by  those  in  whom  he  had  re 
posed  confidence  and  did  not  intend  to  hold  out,  but 
would  not  strike  his  colors  until  he  knew  what  terms 
he  was  to  have.f  The  six-pounder  being  ready,  Lieu 
tenant  Duvernet  was  ordered  to  proceed  with  it  to 
wards  the  fort,  six  men  with  a  sergeant  of  the  King's 
regiment  marching  before  with  fixed  bayonets,  fol 
lowed  by  the  remainder  of  the  detachment  and  the 
volunteers  and  militia  under  Major  Hay. 

As  Hamilton  approached  the  gate  of  the  fort,  he 
sent  a  person  forward  to  summon  the  commanding 
officer  to  surrender  ;J  but  Captain  Helm  desired,  by  a 
written  paper,  to  know  who  made  the  demand.  The 

*  Appendix,  Note  LXIX. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  18-30th,  1778.  —  Haldi- 
mand  MSS.  Hay  probably  obtained  knowledge  of  Helm's 
determination  from  those  who  had  just  deserted  him. 

%  It  was  this  person  who  carried  the  flag  mentioned  by 
Captain  Helm,  in  his  hastily  written  letter  to  Clark  (finished 
and  dispatched  immediately  before  he  was  summoned  to  sur 
render), —  which  flag  he  says  was  "at  a  small  distance" 
away. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       221 

British  commander  sent  for  answer  verbally:  "The 
King's  Lieutenant  Governor  from  Detroit."  Hamil 
ton  then  advanced  to  the  wicket.  Helm  soon  pre 
sented  himself  —  "for,  indeed,"  says  the  Lieutenant 
Governor,  "he  was  almost  alone"  —  having  but  five 
men  left  —  and  asked  what  terms  he  should  have.* 
He  was  answered,  humane  treatment  for  himself  ;  that 
no  other  terms  would  be  mentioned.  Hamilton  was 
then  admitted.  f  "The  officer  who  commanded  in  the 
fort  (Captain  Helm),"  is  the  subsequent  language  of 
Hamilton,  "being  deserted  by  the  officers  and  men 
who  to  the  number  of  seventy  had  formed  his  garrison 
and  were  in  pay  of  the  Congress,  surrendered  his 
wretched  fort  on  the  very  day  of  our  arrival,  being  the 
seventeenth  of  December,  1778.  Thus  we  employed 
seventy-one  days  in  coming  only  six  hundred  miles, 
which  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  extraordinary  diffi 
culties  of  the  way,  owing  to  an  uncommon  drought  ; 
the  severity  of  the  season  ;  and  the  inevitable  delays 
at  the  Indian  villages,  particularly  at  Ouiatanon 


*  See  Appendix,  Note  LXIX. 

f  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  loc.  cit.  But  Hamilton  is 
silent  as  to  the  number  of  Htlm's  garrison.  Although  "hu 
mane  treatment  was  mentioned  only  in  connection  with 
Helm's  name,  the  Captain  seemed  fully  assured  it  would  be 
extended  also  to  his  five  men  and  in  this,  as  will  be  presently 
seen,  he  was  not  mistaken.  It  is  altogether  certain,  from 
what  immediately  transpired,  that  Helm  did  not  leave  the 
fort,  nor  any  of  his  men. 

|  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
But  the  Lieutenant  Governor  was  in  error  in  saying  Captain 
Helm's  garrison  was  in  pay  of  the  Congress.  It  was  from 
Virginia  they  expected  pay  for  their  services,  as  already 
shown. 


222       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

So  soon  as  the  British  commander  entered  the  fort, 
he  posted  sentries  at  the  gate  to  keep  out  the  savages ; 
but  while  he  was  attending  to  this,  some  of  them  got 
in  at  two  gun  posts,  which  had  not  been  secured. 

Hamilton  called  to  the  interpreters  and  used  his 
best  entreaties  with  the  chiefs,  who  really  did  all  in 
their  power  to  restrain  their  men,  "but  the  torrent  was 
too  strong  for  such  feeble  barriers."  The  Indians  bore 
down  the  sentries,  and  seeing  one  posted  at  the  door 
of  Captain  Helm's  quarters,  they  went  to  the  windows 
which  they  broke  in  and  then  fell  to  plundering.  The 
soldiers,  in  the  meantime  drew  up  in  the  fort  and 
were  quiet  spectators  of  this  scene  of  disorder,  "which 
lasted,"  as  the  Lieutenant  Governor  affirms,  "until  the 
curiosity  (I  cannot  say  avarice)  of  the  savages  was 
gratified." 

The  Indians  upon  being  requested  so  to  do,  restored 
to  Captain  Helm  his  private  property.  Thirty-two 
stout  horses  which  had  lately  been  purchased  for  the 
Kentucky  settlements  were  inside  the  fortification  and 
these  were  soon  secured  by  the  Indians,  "which  I  would 
not  deprive  them  of,"  says  Hamilton,  "as  they  had 
not  committed  a  single  act  of  cruelty,  and  have  treated 
the  inhabitants  with  the  humanity  which  was  recom 
mended  to  them."  "Had  a  single  shot  been  fired,"  adds 
the  Lieutenant  Governor,  "probably  the  settlement 
would  have  been  destroyed  in  an  hour's  time."* 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  18-30,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  The  Lieutenant  Governor  was  under  the  impression 
that  the  horses  found  inside  the  fort,  had  been  purchased  for 
the  use  of  Congress,  but  this  was  not  the  case.  ("Bowman's 
Journal"  —  Department  of  State  MSS.)  It  is  evident  that 
Hamilton  had  no  idea  that  the  "rebels"  under  Clark  were, 
along  with  the  Colonel,  Virginia  troops :  he  supposed  the 
whole  were  under  Congressional  direction. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      223 

For  some  time  Captain  Helm  "hesitated  to  take 
down  the  Continental  flag;"  but,  at  length  finding  it 
was  expected  of  him,  ordered  it  to  be  lowered,  and 
the  St.  George's  was  run  up  instead;  "which  signal," 
says  Hamilton,  "drew  in  our  parties,  one  having  taken 
two  prisoners  (an  American  and  a  Frenchman),  who 
had  Captain  Helm's  letter  to  Colonel  Clark."* 

In  the  fort,  Hamilton  found,  besides  the  horses, 
two  iron  three-pounders  mounted  on  truck  carriages, 
two  swivels  not  mounted  and  a  very  small  quantity  of 
ammunition.  As  to  the  fortification,  it  was,  the  Lieu 
tenant  Governor  declares,  "a  miserable  stockade,  with 
out  a  well,  barrack,  platform  for  small  arms,  or  even 
lock  to  the  gate."f 

Although  to  Captain  Helm  was  accorded  humane 
treatment,  and  although  no  violence  was  offered  his 
five  men,  yet  all  were  held  prisoners  of  war.  That 
such  would  be  the  result,  they  must  have  anticipated. 

Outside  the  fort,  the  day  was  spent  on  part  of 
some  of  the  soldiery  and  Indians  in  taking  proper 
precaution  to  secure  their  boats  and  canoes,  and  in 
landing  and  conveying  inside  the  pickets,  provisions 
and  baggage.  Thus  it  was  that  Fort  Sackville  again 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  loc.  cit.  See,  also,  same  to 
same,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS.  It  is  the  declaration 
of  Hamilton  that  the  letter  from  Captain  Helm  was  "to 
Colonel  Clark,  commandant  (under  the  Congress)  of  the 
Eastern  Illinois."  Who  Clark  was  "commandant  under," 
although  not  then  understood,  as  before  explained,  by  the 
Lieutenant  Governor,  was,  not  long  afterward,  it  may  be 
premised,  made  clear  to  him.  Hamilton  sent  a  copy  of  Helm's 
letter  to  the  Commander-in-chief,  declaring  to  him  what  was 
true  enough,  that  it  showed  "what  confidence  was  to  be  placed 
in  men  [meaning  the  citizens  of  Vincennes]  who  have  once 
violated  a  sacred  engagement." 

f  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


224       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

passed  into  the  possession  of  the  British;  and  the  in 
habitants  of  Vincennes  again  bowed  in  submission  to 
a  fate  which  they  could  not  avert.  Everywhere  in  the 
town,  there  was  a  complete  surrender  to  the  Lieutenant 
Governor.  "There  is  nothing  flattering,"  he  wrote 
the  next  day,  "to  win  such  submission."* 

The  official  report  of  Hamilton  puts  the  number  of 
those  who  surrendered  to  him  at  Vincennes,  as  "one 
major,  four  captains,  two  lieutenants,  two  ensigns,  one 
Indian  agent,  one  adjutant,  one  commissary,  one  inter 
preter,  four  sergeants,  and  two  hundred  and  sixteen 
rank  and  file;  of  the  last  one  hundred  and  sixty  were 
volunteers."  This  return  included  all  the  citizens  of 
the  place  who  had  been  enrolled  in  the  militia  com 
panies,  together  with  their  officers. 

Hamilton  had  fully  earned  his  success  at  Vin 
cennes.  It  is  evident  his  journey  from  Detroit  had 
been  one  of  considerable  hardships  and  of  not  a  little 
suffering.  "I  must  say,"  are  his  words,  "to  the  praise 
of  the  officers  and  men,  they  supported  the  fatigues 
and  hardships  of  their  tedious  journey  with  the  utmost 
cheerfulness."  "As  to  the  poor  savages,"  adds  the 
Lieutenant  Governor,  "their  not  firing  a  single  shot  on 
the  day  of  taking  possession  of  the  place,  nor  injuring 
or  even  insulting  a  single  soul  (except  a  poor  miller, 
whose  house  they  plundered,  being  half  a  league  from 
the  fort)  reflects  disgrace  on  some  well-instructed 
Christian  regulars  who  have  not  held  hospitals  as 
asylums  from  their  fury."f 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  18-30,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 

fid.  (For  some  published  errors  concerning  the  march 
of  Hamilton  to  Vincennes  from  Detroit,  and  the  taking  of  the 
first-mentioned  place,  see  Appendix,  Note  LXX.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      225 

Afterwards,  in  commenting  upon  the  behavior  of 
the  savages  upon  this  occasion,  the  British  commander 
says:  "Such  was  the  moderation  and  good  order  ob 
served  by  the  Indians,  that  not  a  single  person  had 
the  slenderest  cause  of  complaint ;  not  a  shot  was  fired 
nor  any  inhabitant  injured  in  person  or  property." 

"It  is  remarkable,"  adds  Hamilton,  "that  although 
on  our  arrival  at  this  place  our  number  was  increased 
to  five  hundred  men,  there  was  not  one  sick,  nor  had 
there  been  a  single  instance  of  drunkenness  among 
the  Indians  or  soldiery  from  the  day  we  left  Detroit, 
though  rum  was  delivered  out  on  every  occasion  when 
the  fatigues  or  bad  weather  made  it  necessary."* 

As  to  the  cause  of  the  detention  by  the  way,  the 
Lieutenant  Governor  gives  certainly  very  reasonable 
explanations. 

And  thus,  too,  sometime  after  these  events  trans 
pired,  wrote  an  officer  of  Lamothe's  company : 

"On  the  seventh  of  October,  1778,  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  Hamilton  took  his  departure  from  Detroit,  with 
a  detachment  of  the  King's  Vlllth  regiment,  the  De 
troit  volunteers,  a  detachment  of  artillery,  two  com 
panies  of  militia,  and  a  number  of  savages,  under  his 
command,  to  retake  the  posts  the  rebels  had  taken 
possession  of  in  the  Illinois ;  that,  after  suffering  the 
greatest,  hardships,  cutting  the  ice  to  make  [a  way] 
for  their  boats,  transporting  their  stores,  provisions, 
etc.,  on  the  soldiers'  backs  at  different  places,  where 

*  Same  to  same,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS.  The 
"five  hundred  men"  included  Indians,  regulars  and  militia  — 
his  entire  force. 

15 


226       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

the  bateaux  could  not  get  over,  they  reached  Vincennes 
on  the  Wabash,  in  December."* 

There  was  a  negligence  on  the  part  of  Haldimand 
so  far  as  replying  to  the  correspondence  of  Hamilton 
was  concerned,  clearly  indicating  his  disproval  of  the 
whole  movement  of  the  Lieutenant  Governor  against 
the  Illinois.  Finally,  however,  he  answered  his  let 
ters  which  had  been  sent  before  starting,  as  also  all 
those  to  the  close  of  the  year.  "I  received,"  he  said, 
"your  several  letters  previous  to  your  departure  from 
Detroit.  The  suddenness  of  your  resolution  to  march 
against  the  rebels  that  had  invaded  the  Illinois,  made  it 
impossible  for  me  to  give  you  any  orders;  but,  from 
the  knowledge  of  you  and  the  spirit  your  letters 
breathe,  I  am  persuaded  you  have  executed  what  ap 
peared  to  you  best  for  the  King's  service ;  and,  in  that 
light,  the  measure  you  had  pursued  was  stated  to  the 
secretary  of  state  in  my  letter  last  fall. 

"I  had  since,  by  your  dispatches  of  the  i8th  Decem 
ber  last,  which  come  to  hand  the  iQth  of  March  with 
their  several  enclosures,  learned  that  you  have  taken 
possession  of  Fort  Vincennes.  Long  befpre  this 
reaches  you,  you  will  have  been  satisfied  whether  the 
rebels  seriously  intended  an  attack  upon  Detroit,  and 
acted  in  consequence,  or  seen  what  further  could  be 
done  for  the  King's  service,  in  those  parts,  with  the 
force  at  present  with  you.  .  .  . 

"By  accounts  which  bear  every  mark  of  authen 
ticity,  his  Majesty's  arms  have  been  attended  with  suc 
cess  to  the  southward ;  the  province  of  Georgia  is  once 
more  reduced  to  obey  their  lawful  sovereign  and  great 

*Schieffelin:  Loose  Notes  (Magazine  of  American  His 
tory,  vol.  I,  p.  186), 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      227 

hopes  are  entertained  of  the  royal  forces  being  able 
to  penetrate  further  that  way.  It  is  likely  this  will 
engage  the  southern  Indians  to  make  such  a  diversion 
on  their  part  as  may  tend  in  future  to  facilitate  your 
operations.  In  the  uncertainty  of  all  things  here,  un 
informed  how  far  this  war  may  spread,  it  is  impossible 
for  me  at  this  distance  to  give  you  orders  and  direc 
tions  respecting  the  further  measures  to  be  pursued 
by  you;  of  the  possibility  or  practicability  of  those 
you  embrace,  you  must  be  the  best  judge,  and  on  your 
doing  what  is  best  for  the  king's  service  I  must  and 
do  fully  rely. 

"Before  you  undertake  anything  considerable,  I 
must  recommend  you  weighing  well  the  difficulty  and 
expense,  that  must  attend  the  transportation  of  every 
article  you  are  to  be  furnished  with  from  here,  and 
whether  they  are  likely  to  be  compensated  by  the  ad 
vantages  expected  to  accrue  from  such  an  undertaking. 

"When  you  write  this  way,  I  should  be  glad  to 
receive  the  best  information  you  can  procure  in  regard 
to  the  most  likely  measures  to  be  pursued  for  conciliat 
ing  the  Indians,  preventing  the  rebels'  designs,  and 
securing  the  upper  country,  that  when  my  spring  dis 
patches  reach  me,  I  may  be  better  enabled  to  judge  of 
what  is  best  to  be  done  for  those  purposes."* 

*Haldimand  to  Hamilton,  April  9,  1779.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

HAMILTON  convened  the  inhabitants  of  Vin- 
cennes  in  the  church,  on  the  second  day  after 
his  arrival  and  having  ''in  pretty  strong  terms 
painted  their  poltroonery,  ingratitude  and  perfidy,"  he 
uread  them  an  oath,  to  be  subscribed  only  by  those 
who,  being  sensible  of  their  fault,  should  publicly  ac 
knowledge  it,  and  thereby  have  a  claim  to  the  pro 
tection  of  the  government.  The  chief  people  of  the 
place  have  either  in  an  underhand  manner  or  openly 
embraced  the  rebel  party."* 

"Having  summoned  the  inhabitants  to  assemble 
the  Lieutenant  Governor  afterward  wrote, 
"I  went  to  meet  them,  reproached  them  for  their 
treachery  and  ingratitude,  but  told  them  since  they  had 
laid  down  their  arms  and  sued  for  protection,  that, 
on  renewing  their  oath  of  allegiance,  they  should  be 
secured  in  their  persons  and  property."  "Lenity," 
adds  the  British  commander,  "I  thought  might  induce 
the  French  inhabitants  of  Kaskaskia  to  follow  their 
example,  though  the  conduct  of  the  Canadians  at  large 
was  but  poor  encouragement.  I  read  twice  to  them 
the  oath  prepared  for  them  to  take,  explained  the  nature 
of  it,  and  cautioned  them  against  that  levity  they  had 
so  recently  given  proof  of" : 

"We,  the  undersigned,  declare  and  avow  that  we 
have  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  Congress,  and,  in 
so  doing,  we  have  forgotten  our  duty  towards  God  and 
have  failed  towards  men.  We  ask  the  pardon  of  God, 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  18-30,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS,  (228) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      229 

and  we  hope  for  the  mercy  of  our  legitimate  sover 
eign,  the  king  of  England,  and  that  he  will  accept 
our  submission  and  take  us  under  his  protection  as 
good  and  faithful  subjects,  which  we  promise  and  pray 
to  be  able  to  become  before  God  and  before  men."* 

"The  oath,"  says  Hamilton,  "which  I  read  in  the 
church  aloud  and  explained  to  the  inhabitants,  I  told 
them  was  not  forced  upon  them  but  offered  for  the 
consideration  of  sober  people  convinced  of  their  fault, 
who,  in  their  repentance,  might  be  once  again  received 
under  the  protection  of  their  king."  "Humiliating  as 
the  oath  is,"  adds  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  "one  hun 
dred  and  fifty-eight  signed  it  in  a  few  days."f 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  who  was  the  most  dis 
graced  :  Hamilton  in  dictating  the  oath,  or  the  people 
of  Vincennes  in  taking  it.  The  Lieutenant  Governor 
was  still  laboring  under  the  erroneous  belief  that  Con 
gress  had  directed  all  affairs  terminating  in  the  con 
quest  of  the  Illinois  towns  and  those  upon  the  Wabash 
and  that  the  creole  population  had  taken  the  oath  of 
allegiance  to  that  body  only. 

An  account  was  taken  of  the  inhabitants  of  Vin 
cennes  of  all  ages  and  either  sex,  showing  the  number 
in  the  village  to  be  six  hundred  and  twenty-one,  of 
whom  two  hundred  and  seventeen  were  "fit  to  bear 
arms  on  the  spot ;"  but  there  were  several  men  absent, 
hunting  buffaloes  for  their  winter  provision,  not  in 
cluded  in  the  enumeration.  The  entire  population  was, 
probably,  a  little  less  than  six  hundred  and  fifty  souls. 
Those  who  had  accepted  commissions  under  Virginia, 

*  Same  to  same,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
f  Same  to    same,    Dec.    18-30,    1778.  —  Haldimand    MSS. 
(See  Appendix,  Note  LXXI.) 


230       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

now  delivered  them  up;*  and  all  who  had  laid  down 
their  arms  and  renewed  their  oath  of  allegiance,  re 
ceived  theirs  again,  and,  on  application,  had  pass 
ports  given  them  to  go  hunting.  A  strict  search  was 
made  for  gunpowder;  all  that  was  found  in  the  town 
was  put  into  the  magazine  in  the  fort ;  and  a  heavy 
fine  was  laid  on  those  who  should  be  found  to  conceal 
any;  nevertheless,  much  of  what  belonged  to  the  in 
habitants,  Hamilton  failed  to  discover. 

It  had  already  become  a  point  of  consideration 
with  Hamilton  whether  he  should  proceed  directly  to 
attack  the  "rebels"  in  the  Illinois  or  be  content  to 
establish  himself  in  Fort  Sackville  for  the  winter.  He 
soon  decided  to  remain  in  Vincennes.  Late  rains  had 
so  swollen  the  rivers  as  to  make  it  probable  he  might 
be  stopped  so  long  as  to  consume  his  provisions  be 
fore  he  got  half  way.  The  condition  of  the  fort  was 
such  that,  to  make  it  tenable,  all  his  available  force 
would  have  to  be  called  into  requisition.  To  leave 
the  fortification  in  such  a  state  with  a  small  garrison 
would  be  to  invite  the  enemy  to  go  against  it,  as  the 
Lieutenant  Governor  believed,  to  be  joined  again  by 
the  inhabitants  notwithstanding  their  recent  oaths. 
The  Wabash  Indians  he  found  were  wavering  and 
it  would  require  the  presence  of  some  force  to  keep 
them  to  what  they  then  professed.  Such  were  Hamil 
ton's  reasons  for  not  moving  onward  to  the  attack  of 

*  The  Lieutenant  Governor  says  "those  who  had  accepted 
commissions  under  Congress  delivered  them  up;"  he  should 
have  said,  "under  Virginia;"  but,  as  just  explained,  he  was 
still  ignorant  that  the  American  conquerors  in  the  Illinois 
were  Virginia  militia  only,  the  probability  being  that  the 
commissions  written  out  by  Captain  Helm  were  loosely 
worded. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      231 


the  Illinois  until  a  more  favorable  season.  Then,  too, 
there  would  be  the  advantages  of  commanding  the 
Ohio,  of  cutting  off  "rebel"  communication  by  land 
between  the  Illinois  and  the  Falls  of  that  river,  and 
of  being  situated  so  as  to  encourage  the  Delawares  and 
Ottawas  on  White  river,  who  showed  marked  hostility 
to  Americans.  There  was  fear,  also,  if  the  march 
against  the  Illinois  was  continued,  and  from  any  cause 
much  prolonged,  his  Indian  auxiliaries  would  leave 
him  in  a  body.* 

The  information  sent  by  Hamilton  from  Detroit 
to  De  Peyster,  the  middle  of  September,  as  to  his 
determination  to  set  off  in  a  few  days  for  the  Illinois 
towns,  and  the  request  that  the  Michilimackinac  com 
mandant  should  engage  his  Indians  to  cooperate  with 
him  by  way  of  the  Illinois  river,f  were  duly  received 
by  that  officer.  And  the  Lieutenant  Governor  again 
wrote  the  Major  just  before  starting,  leaving  direc 
tions  to  have  his  letter  forwarded  after  his  departure. 
But  Hamilton,  even  in  the  first  instance,  wrote  too 
late  for  immediate  action  on  part  of  De  Feyster.  "Had 
the  Indians  not  been  gone  to  their  several  homes  before 
I  received  Mr.  Hamilton's  letters,"  were  the  words  of 
the  latter  afterward  to  the  commander-in-chief,  "it 
would  have  been  in  my  power  to  have  seconded  his 
attempt,  which  he  tells  me  he  directs  in  person  to 
dispossess  the  rebels  at  the  Illinois." 

"The  Indians  at  present,"  he  also  wrote,  "are  too 
much  dispersed  for  me  to  assemble  them  in  a  body 
sufficiently  strong  to  go  down  that  river;  and  I  am 
persuaded  they  would  not  leave  their  wives  and  chil- 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  LXXII. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Sept.  16,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. ;  and  same  to  same,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


232       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

dren  in  their  wintering  grounds,  their  having  been  no 
previous  provision  made  for  them.  I  shall,  however, 
send  express  to  the  Grand  river  and  on  the  borders 
of  Lake  Michigan  to  endeaver  to  spirit  up  the  young 
men  to  join  Mr.  Hamilton  by  the  most  expeditious 
route,  ordering  them  to  call  at  St.  Joseph  for  further 
information  of  his  situation.  I  shall  also  write  to  Mr. 
Chevalier  to  give  Mr.  Hamilton  every  assistance  in 
his  power,  which  I  fear  cannot  be  much,  as  the  Indians 
mostly  are  gone  to  their  hunting  grounds."* 

In  referring  further  to  Chevalier,  the  commandant 
said:  "I  have  long  since  by  civil  treatment,  appar 
ently  secured  that  gentleman  to  his  Majesty's  interests, 
foreseeing  that  he  would  become  useful  before  those 
troubles  could  be  at  an  end.  The  different  represen 
tation  of  him  by  Mr.  Hamilton  and  myself  must  ap 
pear  extraordinary.  I  can  assure  your  Excellency  that 
I  never  heard  anything  that  could  be  proven  to  his  dis 
advantage;  on  the  contrary,  whilst  at  this  post,  he, 
with  a  becoming  decency,  set  his  enemies  at  defiance. 
Should  he  however  prove  faithless  the  disadvantages 
arising  from  my  credulity  will  be  greatly  overbal 
anced  by  advantages  that  may  occur  by  putting  some 

*  De  Peyster  to  Haldimand,  Oct.  24,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  What  little  assistance  Chevalier  was  able  to  give  Ham 
ilton  in  bringing  to  him  a  few  Pottawattamies,  has  already 
been  mentioned. 

The  Indians  that  De  Peyster  would  "spirit  up"  were 
Ottawas  and  Chippewas.  As  Grand  river  flows  into  Lake 
Michigan  on  the  eastern  side,  the  Indians  upon  that  stream 
and  upon  the  eastern  border  of  the  lake,  at  that  time,  would, 
in  going  south  to  the  aid  of  Hamilton  (especially  if  intending 
to  take  the  route  of  the  Illinois  river)  reach  St.  Joseph  on 
their  way,  where,  naturally,  further  information  as  to  the 
movements  of  the  Lieutenant  Governor  would  be  attainable. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      233 

confidence  in  him.  This  much  I  am  obliged  to  say  in 
vindication  of  my  judgment,  as  Mr.  Hamilton,  not 
withstanding  my  representation  to  him,  writes  me 
that  he  has  represented  him  to  your  Excellency  in  a 
very  unfavorable  light." 

"I  shall  take  every  possible  method  to  procure  in 
telligence  of  the  present  state  of  the  Illinois,"  continues 
De  Peyster,  "and  transmit  (if  I  receive  any)  by  way  of 
Detroit  during  the  course  of  the  winter."* 

The  request  which  had  been  sent  by  General  Hal- 
dimand  to  De  Peyster  to  give  him  his  views  as  to 
whether  he  thought  there  were  any  means  that  might 
be  employed  with  a  probability  of  success  to  repossess 
the  Illinois  and  what  those  means  were,  if  in  his  opin 
ion,  it  might  be  accomplished,  was  now  answered  by 
the  Michilimackinac  commandant : 

"I  have  now  to  offer  my  sentiments  agreeable  to 
your  Excellency's  request,  whether  anything  can  be 
done  for  the  recovery  of  the  Illinois : 

"Provided  your  Excellency's  instructions  relative 
to  stopping  the  communication  of  the  Ohio  be  vigor 
ously  put  in  execution,  I  am  persuaded  that  Mr. 
Gautier  or  some  other  active  person  may  assemble  a 
body  of  Indians  in  his  direct  road  from  La  Bay  [that 
is,  from  Green  Bay]  to  Prairie  du  Chien  and  in  the 
river  St.  Peter,  to  go  down  the  Mississippi  early  in 
the  spring,  which  may  be  performed  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Wisconsin  in  seven  or  eight  days.  That  country 
is  full  of  resources,  but  the  Indians  must  have  presents. 
Whenever  we  fall  off  in  those,  they  are  no  more  to  be 
depended  upon.  The  past  is  soon  forgotten  by  them, 

*  De  Peyster  to  Haldimand,  Oct.  24,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.,  just  before  cited. 


234       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

except  when  they  do  us  a  favor.  Give  the  Indians  of 
this  country  a  present  and  they  will  immediately  strive 
to  make  some  trifling  return,  which,  however,  we 
must  give  them  four  times  the  value  for.  To  second 
the  above  mentioned  Indians,  the  Pottawattamies  must 
be  also  ordered  to  move  down  the  Illinois  river  fol 
lowed  by  the  Ottawas  and  Chippewas ;  those  latter 
will  be  rather  late,  but,  by  sending  belts  before  them 
to  assure  the  Illinois  Indians  that  they  came  in  friend 
ship  to  them  provided  they  join  in  driving  out  the 
rebels,  it  will  have  great  effect ;  even  the  brent  of  their 
intended  march  will  settle  them.  The  inhabitants  of 
that  country  are  not  to  be  depended  upon  should  the 
French  offer  to  interfere;  otherwise,  should  they  join 
the  rebels,  it  would  be  through  fear  of  being  plundered 
by  the  stranger  Indians."* 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  October,  Langlade  and  Gau- 
tier,  who  had  been  returned  to  De  Peyster  from  the 
St.  Lawrence,  to  attend  on  his  orders,  arrived  at  Mich- 
ilimackinac.  The  commandant  immediately  deter 
mined  to  send  them  off  "to  give  every  assistance  in 
their  power  to  Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton."  He 
provided  them  with  some  goods  which,  he  believed, 
with  their  presence  among  the  savages,  would  do  more 
good  than  could  be  expected  by  sending  "belts  by  the 
hands  of  Indians."  Orders  were  issued  to  both,  to 
arouse  the  savages  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  Hamilton. 

Langlade  was  to  go  among  the  Ottawas  and  Chip 
pewas  who  were  wintering  at  Grand  river  "to  make 
them  assemble  without  loss  of  time,"  while  Gautier 
was  to  proceed  to  St.  Joseph,  where  he  was  to  confer 
with  Chevalier,  requesting  him  to  assist  Ainse,  De 

*Id. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      235 

Peyster's  interpreter,  whom  he  would  send  to  that 
place,  in  gathering  the  Pottawattamies  of  the  neigh 
borhood  together. 

"Gautier,"  was  the  order  of  the  commandant, 
"must  do  his  best  to  get  information  of  the  situation 
of  Mr.  Hamilton,  making  report  of  the  same  to  Mr. 
Langlade.  They  will  do  their  best  to  join  him  by 
the  shortest  route,  or  to  descend  the  Illinois  river  if 
it  is  possible  and  more  likely  to  assist  the  operations 
of  Mr.  Hamilton. 

"Since  events  cannot  be  foreseen,  in  case  Mr.  Ham 
ilton  has  yielded  and  returned  to  Detroit,  then,  if  you 
do  not  believe  yourself  strong  enough  in  men  to  attack 
Kaskaskia  or  Cahokia,  you  will  send  the  Indians  home 
to  their  winter  quarters  and  will,  by  the  shortest  route 
gain  your  different  posts,  Mr.  Langlade  at  the  Bay 
and  Mr.  Gautier  at  the  Mississippi,  there  to  try  to 
keep  the  nations  well  disposed  for  the  service  until 
new  orders. 

"In  this  enterprise,  it  is  recommended  to  you  to 
say  to  the  warriors  to  use  humanity  towards  the  pris 
oners  and  others  who  may  be  found  without  arms, 
because  there  are  several  English  traders  retained  by 
force  amongst  the  rebels.  The  prisoners  will  be  paid 
for. 

"Since  the  nations  in  general  have  had  many  pre 
sents  from  his  Majesty  before,  it  is  recommended  to 
you  to  make  as  little  expense  as  the  nature  of  the 
service  will  allow,  not  giving  them  anything  but  what 
is  absolutely  necessary."* 

*  Instructions  of  Major  A.  S.  De  Peyster  to  Capt.  Lang 
lade  and  Lieut.  Gautier,  Oct.  26,  1778.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 
(See  Appendix,  Note  LXXIII.) 


236       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


De  Peyster  felicitated  himself  (and  he  so  wrote 
the  Commander-in-chief)  that  Hamilton  would  not 
meet  with  any  impediments  from  want  of  such  assist 
ance  as  it  was  in  his  power  to  give  him.  At  that 
juncture,  the  Major  would  have  found  the  aid  of  the 
sloop  Welcome  of  much  advantage,  as  he  was  obliged 
to  press  into  his  service  a  man  of  the  place  "to  make 
out  a  canoe"  for  St.  Joseph.* 

Langlade,  Gautier  and  Ainse  being  detained  by 
contrary  winds,  did  not  reach  the  mouth  of  Grand 
river  (which  stream  falls  into  Lake  Michigan  at  the 
present  town  of  Grand  Haven)  until  the  thirteenth  of 
November.  There  Langlade  landed,  but  Gautier  and 
Ainse  proceeded  on  to  St.  Joseph,  not  arriving  there 
because  of  bad  weather  until  the  second  of  December. 
They  found  there  Chevalier,  who  had  been  twenty- 
two  days  from  Hamilton's  little  army,  which  passed  the 
portage  from  the  Maumee  to  the  waters  of  the  Wabash 
before  he  left. 

The  news  that  Hamilton  had  got  so  far  the  start 
being  received  at  Grand  river,  where  Langlade  had 
succeeded  in  raising  eighty  Indians  (notwithstanding 
the  Ottawas  there,  because  of  not  having  previous 
notice,  had  already  declined  the  service),  they  refused 
to  follow  at  so  great  distance;  so  his  efforts  proved 
a  failure  and  he  went  no  farther.  Gautier,  too,  find 
ing  that  Chevalier  had  already  taken  the  few  Pottawat- 
tamies,  which  could  be  raised  at  that  advanced  season 
to  Hamilton,  was  constrained  to  make  no  attempt  to 
gather  any  of  that  nation  for  a  movement  in  aid  of 
the  Lieutenant  Governor.  Langlade  then  proceeded  to 

*  De  Peyster  to  Haldimand,  Oct.  27,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       237 

Green  Bay  and  Gautier  to  Prairie  du  Chien,  both 
carrying  belts  and  speeches,  exhorting  the  Indians 
to  be  ready  in  the  spring,  if  called  upon.* 

De  Peyster  was  subsequently  informed  by  Chevalier 
that  the  Pottawattamies  who  had  joined  Hamilton 
were  returned  home  to  pass  the  winter,  and  that  they 
brought  him  a  letter  from  the  Lieutenant  Governor 
informing  him  that  he  did  not  intend  to  leave  Vin- 
cennes  until  spring.  However,  the  Michilimackinac 
commander  concluded  not  to  postpone  any  help  which 
could  possibly  be  sent  him ;  so  he  again  ordered  the 
Ottawas  and  Chippewas  at  the  Grand  river  to  march 
to  his  (Hamilton's)  aid;  and  he  also  sent  an  express 
to  Gautier  to  move  down  the  Mississippi  with  all  the 
Winnebagoes  and  Sacs  and  Foxes  he  could  raise,  sug 
gesting,  it  seems,  that  he  take  with  him  any  Canadians 
that  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  march  with  him.f 

But  the  first  order  he  soon  countermanded,  as  he 
learned  Detroit  was  threatened.  The  savages  prop 
erly  called  the  "Grand  River  Indians,"  De  Peyster 
advised  to  go  directly  to  that  post,  as  it  was  but  a 
short  cut  across  the  country;  while  a  band  was  sent 
from  Thunder  Bay,  on  the  west  side  of  Lake  Huron, 
likewise  "to  hearten  the  Indians  about  Detroit."  In 
the  last  days  of  March,  the  Michilimackinac  command 
ant  wrote  that,  by  that  time,  Gautier  "should  be  on 
the  march,  joined  by  some  active  Canadians. "J  He 

*  Same  to  same,  Jan.  29,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 

f  Same  to  same,  March  29,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS.  But 
no  aid  had  been  or  was  sent  to  Detroit  or  by  way  of  that 
post,  to  Hamilton  to  assist  him  on  his  expedition,  by  the 
Michilimackinac  commander  or  by  any  of  the  subordinates  of 
the  latter. 

%  De  Peyster  to  Haldimand,  March  29,  1779.  —  Haldimand 
MSS, 


238       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

did  march  it  is  true ;  that  is,  he  floated  down  the  Mis 
sissippi,  with  two  hundred  and  eight  Indians — Winne- 
bagoes,  Menomonees,  Foxes,  Ottawas  and  Chippewas 
—  as  far  as  the  mouth  of  Rock  river,  but  did  not  get 
below  that  point. 

Langlade,  on  his  arrival  at  La  Bay  (that  is,  at 
Green  Bay)  from  his  unsuccessful  attempt  to  rein 
force  Hamilton  with  Indians  wintering  at  the  Grand 
river,  received  information  from  the  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  at  Vincennes,  acquainting  him  of  his  determin 
ation  to  winter  at  that  place,  and  was  ordered  to  join 
him  early  in  the  spring  by  way  of  the  Illinois  river. 
He  attempted  to  do  so  with  some  Indians,  but  got 
no  farther  than  Milwaukee.* 

*Same  to  same,  May  13,   1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

NOW  that  Hamilton  had  determined  to  winter  in 
Vincennes,  he  quickly  made  up  his  mind  to  pro 
vide  coverings  for  his  men,  provisions  and 
stores;  and,  as  soon  as  these  were  finished,  he  would 
change  the  form  of  the  fort  to  that  of  a  triangle,  hav 
ing  a  blockhouse  at  each  angle  to  project  over  the  pick- 
etting.  He  proposed  to  do  all  the  work  with  his  own 
men,  carrying  it  forward  to  completion  during  the 
winter  without  any  aid  from  the  inhabitants. 
"Though  this  should  be  done/'  wrote  the  commander, 
"the  village  is  built  in  such  a  manner  (a  space  of  one 
hundred  feet  to  two  hundred  feet  and  more  being  left 
tween  house  and  house),  that  most  of  the  buildings 
might  be  maintained  by  a  dozen  men,  and  they  might 
distress  the  largest  garrison  the  fort  could  contain. 
Some  houses  are  near  the  fort  and  it  would  be  very  ex 
pensive  to  purchase  them  and  ruinous  to  particular 
persons  to  destroy  them.  [But]  the  garrison  might 
have  it  in  their  power  in  case  of  treachery,  to  burn  the 
whole  town,  either  by  making  sallies  in  the  night  or 
firing  red-hot  bullets."* 

A  week  after  his  arrival  at  Vincennes,  the  Lieu 
tenant-Governor  made  a  return  of  his  white  force  to 
General  Haldimand,  showing  his  whole  number  of 

*. Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  18-30,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  The  Commander-in-chief,  on  this  information  from 
the  Lieutenant  Governor,  says :  "He  [Hamilton]  rinds  .  .  . 
the  village  a  detriment  to  the  fort  now  building;  and  immedi 
ately  after,  he  thinks  it  secure,  by  proposing  means  to  destroy 
said  village;  but  he  gives  no  reason  why  he  does  not  removej 
the  fort  from  so  disadvantageous  a  situation." 

(239) 


240      HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

men  including  commissioned  officers,  non-commis 
sioned  officers  and  privates  to  be  one  hundred  and 
seventy-six.*  He  also  gave  to  the  commander-in- 
chief,  the  prices  of  necessaries  which  ruled  in  the 
town.  Flour  sold  at  an  exorbitant  rate,  so  also 
Indian  corn;  but  fresh  beef  and  buffalo  meat 
were  cheap.  "Wine  made  here"  had  a  market  value 
of  nearly  five  dollars  a  gallon.f 

On  Christmas,  Hamilton  sent  off  an  express  to 
"Mr.  [John]  Stuart,  the  agent  of  Indian  affairs  to  the 
Southward,"  with  a  letter  informing  him  of  the  good 
disposition  of  the  Indians  at  the  north  and  asking 
those  of  the  south  to  act  vigorously  the  ensuing  spring ; 
also  with  belts  for  the  Chickasaws  and  Cherokees,  pro 
posing  a  meeting  with  them  in  the  Spring,  at  Vin- 
cennes  or  at  the  Tennessee  river,  the  object  of  which 
was,  to  reconcile  the  Southern  Indians  with  the  Shaw- 
anese  and  other  Northern  nations,  and  to  concert  a 
general  invasion  of  the  "rebel"  frontiers;  which  in 
vasion  had  not  been  mapped  out  by  him  when  he  left 
Detroit,  although  there  was  a  prospect  at  that  time  of 
uniting  the  Western  and  Southern  Indians  and  en 
gaging  them  to  act  in  concert  against  the  Americans  — 
but  on  what  lines  was  only  the  remotest  conjecture.^ 
What  prompted  the  sending  of  this  express  was,  a  re 
port  he  had  just  received  that  four  hundred  Shawa- 
nese,  Delawares,  Ottawas  and  Cherokees  were  then  as 
sembled  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee  with  design  to 
intercept  "rebel"  boats  passing  and  repassing  the 

*  Appendix,  Note  LXXIV. 
fid. 

J  Alexander  McKee  to  Haldimand,  July  16,  1779.  —  Haldi- 
mand  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       241 

Ohio.*  But  he  soon  learned  what  confidence  was  to 
be  placed,  as  a  general  thing,  in  Indian  accounts. 

Hamilton  had,  previously,  sent  out  scouts  towards 
Kaskaskia;  these  now  brought  in  two  prisoners  from 
the  Illinois,  who  gave  information  that  no  boats  had 
lately  arrived  from  New  Orleans;  that  the  "rebels" 
did  not  exceed  eighty  at  Kaskaskia,  or  thirty  at  Caho- 
kia ;  that  there  had  been  a  recent  arrival  of  Pottawatta- 
mies  at  the  Illinois ;  and  that  there  was  no  discipline 
among  the  "rebel"  soldiers  enforced.  Prompted  by 
this  information,  doubtless,  the  Lieutenant-Governor 
at  once  sent  two  Pottawattamie  chiefs  of  Detroit  on  a 
mission  to  those  of  their  tribe  just  mentioned.  The 
two  savages  promised  they  would  return  as  soon  as 
they  could  execute  their  orders. f 

The  Lieutenant-Governor  informed  his  superior 
officer  that  Captain  Helm  remained  at  Vincennes  on 
his  parole  and  would  not  leave  until  it  could  be  known 
if  the  Governor  of  Virginia  would  permit  his  ex 
change  for  Rocheblave  then  supposed  to  be  in  Wil- 
liamsburg.  He  suggested  to  General  Haldimand  that 
"the  arrival  of  a  reinforcement  of  troops  from  Detroit 
early  in  the  Spring,"  would  enable  him  to  send  home 
the  volunteer  militia  who  accompanied  him  only  for 
the  campaign. J 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  18-30,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. ;  and  same  to  same,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
This  last-mentioned  "design"  was  exactly  in  accordance  with 
Haldimand's  views  as  expressed  in  his  letter  to  Hamilton  of 
the  26th  of  August  previous.  It  did  not  contemplate  a  "gen 
eral  invasion  of  the  rebel  frontiers." 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  28-30,  1778.  — H  aldimand 
MSS. 

%  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  18-30,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  "He  [Hamilton]  mentions  a  reinforcement  next 
16 


242       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Hamilton  again  called  the  attention  of  the  Com 
mander-in-chief  to  De  Celoron,  declaring  him  unfit  to 
remain  as  commandant  at  Wea ;  —  "his  pusillanimity 
drove  him  four  hundred  miles  from  his  post ;  and  he 
never  waited  to  have  certain  accounts  verified,  but 
forged  such  as  his  fears  or  credulity  suggested."* 

A  barrack  of  logs  and  boards  capable  of  receiving 
fifty  men  was  the  first  thing  built  for  the  soldiers. 
Two  companies  ac  once  moved  in,  while  the  residue  of 
the  troops  remained  tented  in  the  fort,  until  lodgings 
could  be  prepared  for  them.  A  well  was  commenced 
and  a  magazine  for  powder  soon  finished. 

"This  day"  (Hamilton  was  writing  on  the  twenty- 
seventh  of  December)  "two  Delawares  came  in,  who 
heard  the  morning  and  evening  gun,  as  they  say,  at  the 
distance  of  three  days'  march."f  "They  say  belts  are 
gone,"  continues  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  "from  the 
Chickasaws  and  Cherokees  to  the  Shawanese  and  Del 
awares  asking  them  to  forget  former  quarrels  and  to 
unite  against  the  Virginians.  The  messengers  are 
expected  to  be  here  in  a  few  days.  These  Delawares 

Spring  from  Detroit,  but  does  not  mention  what  number  he 
wants,  neither  if  he  has  ordered  said  reinforcement,  or  if 
the  Commander-in-chief  is  to  order  it."  —  Haldimand's  Re 
marks  on  Lieut.  Gov.  Hamilton's  Letter:  Haldimand  MSS. 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  18-30,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  "He  [Hamilton]  thinks  De  Celoron  unfit  to  remain 
commandant  at  Ouiatanon  [Wea],  as  if  he  was  there  again, 
which  he  ought  to  mention,  but  says  he  left  it  in  a  fright 
and  went  400  miles  from  it"  —  Haldimand :  Remarks  on 
Lieut.  Gov.  Hamilton's  Letter. 

f  "He  [Hamilton]  speaks  ...  of  Indians  who  arrived 
and  told  they  had  heard  a  morning  and  evening  gun  three 
days'  march  off.  If  it  is  his,  he  must  have  a  great  deal  of 
powder  to  waste  during  the  winter."  —  Haldimand. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      243 

confirm  the  accounts  of  a  number  of  Shawanese,  Ot- 
tawas,  Chickasaws  and  Cherokees  being  assembled  at 
the  Tennessee  river.  They  add  that  some  one  em 
ployed  for  his  Majesty  has  invited  all  the  Southern  na 
tions  to  convene  at  the  same  place  next  Spring  to  come 
to  Vincennes  to  drive  out  the  rebels  and  their  friends ; 
that  the  people  now  there  were  to  interecept  the  rebel 
boats  on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi ;  and  the  rebels  were 
dispossessed  lately  of  a  settlement  of  the  river  last 
mentioned  by  the  English." 

On  the  same  day,  the  British  commander  contin 
ued  his  letter  to  the  Commander-in-chief : 

"This  day  a  party  of  Kickapoos  went  to  war  to 
ward  Kaskaskia.  This  makes  me  easy  as  to  the  In 
dians  of  this  [the  Wabash]  river,  who  will  follow  im 
plicitly  the  example  of  the  Kickapoos  —  the  most  war 
like  and  cruel  of  them  all."  But  the  going  "to  war 
toward  Kaskaskia"  by  no  means  implied  that  Hamilton 
had  authorized  the  savages  to  attack  any  of  the  Creoles 
of  the  Illinois  villages;  on  the  contrary  he  had  given 
express  orders  that  none  should  be  killed.  They  might 
be  taken  prisoners  and  brought  to  him ;  that  was  all. 
But  any  Virginians  might  be  tomahawked  and  scalped 
that  could  be  found.  As  a  consequence  of  these  in 
structions  by  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  the  garrisons 
under  Clark  were  in  reality  in  little  or  no  danger  from 
the  Indians  going  from  Vincennes  as  they  would  al 
most  certainly  be  discovered  by  the  inhabitants  of  the 
towns,  if  attempting  to  approach  near  to  either  of 
them. 

"As  I  had  engaged  the  volunteer  militia  of  De 
troit  for  the  campaign,"  wrote  the  Lieutenant-Gov 
ernor,  "they  were  .  .  .  advertised  that  they  would 


244       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

be  allowed  to  return  with  twenty  days'  pay  from  the 
date  of  their  discharge."*  The  truth  was,  Captain 
McLeod's  men,  also  Captain  Maisonville's,  had  nearly 
all  began  to  murmur  and  complain ;  —  they  "had  tes 
tified  so  much  uneasiness  and  willingness  to  remain," 
are  Hamilton's  words,  "that  I  chose  to  send  them  away 
rather  than  keep  them  against  their  inclination."  All 
of  the  two  companies  returned  to  Detroit  except  five 
privates,  the  major,  one  captain,  one  lieutenant,  the 
surgeon  and  boatmaster. 

"Several  persons,"  the  Lieutenant-Goveror  wrote, 
"who  had  been  on  pay  as  partisans  with  the  Indians 
I  believe  fomented  this  discontent,  which  I  attributed 
to  their  surmizing  that  France  would  join  the  Ameri 
cans."  "These  people,"  adds  the  commander,  "I  dis 
charged  and  sent  away."  There  were  four  lieutenants 
and  one  commissioner  of  provisions,  of  those  he  thus 
gladly  permitted  to  return  to  their  homes. 

Two  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  militia  of  Vincennes 
made  their  appearance  on  the  same  day  of  the  depart 
ure  of  the  Detroit  militia,  under  arms,  with  their  of 
ficers.  All  of  them  had  previously  taken  the  oath  of 
allegiance  and  renounced  their  late  connection  with  the 
"rebels."  "They  are,  of  course,  pardoned,"  wrote 
Hamilton.  "I  hope  your  Excellency,"  he  added  in  his 
remarks  to  General  Haldimand,  "will  approve  of  this 
act  of  oblivion.  If  a  sense  of  interest  can  move  them, 
they  will  adhere  to  it.  As  to  courage,  honor,  or  grat 
itude,  if  they  were  of  the  growth  of  this  soil,  it  -would 
have  been  exhibited  on  the  occasion  of  a  handful  of 
rebels  coming  to  take  away  the  possessions  of  three 

*  Appendix,  Note  LXXV. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       245 

hundred  men  used  to  arms  as  hunters  and  to  the  mild 
est  government  under  heaven." 

"It  will  be  a  great  satisfaction  to  me,"  are  the 
further  words  of  the  commander  to  Haldimand,  "to 
have  your  Excellency's  orders,  and  as  soon  as  possible, 
to  resign  to  the  person  you  shall  send  to  command 
here"*  —  Hamilton  being  satisfied  that  the  prestige  or 
interests  of  Britain  could  only  be  maintained  in  Vin- 
cennes  by  military  force. 

Hamilton  ended  his  lengthy  letter  to  the  com- 
mander-in-chief  by  giving  him  information  on  a  num 
ber  of  subjects: 

"I  have  taken  up  all  the  spirituous  liquors  in  the 
place,  which  is  better,  surely,  for  the  good  behavior  of 
the  inhabitants.  .  . 

"Tomorrow  [he  was  still  writing  on  the  twenty- 
seventh]  I  shall  destroy  two  billiard  tables,  the  sources 
of  immorality  and  dissipation  in  such  a  settlement. 

"Could  I  catch  the  priest  —  Mr.  Gibault  —  who 
has  blown  the  trumpet  of  rebellion  for  the  Americans, 
I  should  send  him  down  unhurt  to  your  Excellency,  to 
get  the  reward  of  his  zeal. 

"The  Pottawattamies  whom  I  sent  towards  Kas- 
kaskia  are  returned;  'the  waters  being  out/  as  they 
say,  prevented  their  progress.  They  brought  in  a 
Frenchman,  prisoner,  who  had  nothing  new  to  tell. 

"Several  chiefs  and  warriors  are  returned  to  their 
villages  seemingly  well  satisfied,  and  have  promised  to 
return  if  it  should  be  necessary.  The  diminution  of 
our  numbers  is  a  necessary  step  as  the  consumption  of 
provisions  during  their  stay  is  very  considerable. f 

*Id. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  18-30,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.    "Vincennes,    Dec.   30th,    1778,    the  express*   sets  out." 


246       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

The  general  plan  devised  by  Hamilton  to  be  car 
ried  out  in  strengthening  Fort  Sackville  was,  at  the 
suggestion  of  Major  Hay,  soon  changed.  The  forti 
fication  was  to  be  left  in  a  square  form  with  a 
blockhouse  to  be  erected  at  the  northwest  angle  and 
one  at  the  opposite  angle,  each  commanding  two  sides 
of  the  square,  —  the  small  salient  angle  in  each  face  of 
the  square  to  be  removed..  This  proposition,  if  carried 
out,  it  was  believed  would  reduce  the  expense  consid 
erably  and  make  the  fort  capable  of  being  more  easily 
defended  with  a  small  force.  The  block  houses  were 
to  be  musket  proof,  and  each  to  have  five  forts.  In 
them,  were  to  be  mounted  the  three-pounders  found  in 
the  fort  when  surrendered  by  Captain  Helm.  The 
other  angles  were  to  be  loop-holed  and  lined,  having 
platforms  for  musketry.  The  work,  as  thus  finally  de 
termined  upon,  was  carried  forward  with  considerable 
rapidity. 

The  information  received  by  the  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor  concerning  the  assembling  of  the  Southern  In 
dians  at  the  Tennessee  river  was  by  no  means  lost 
sight  of  by  that  officer.  By  a  careful  comparison  of 
all  reports  which  had  reached  him,  he  was  able  to  un 
derstand  clearly  the  design  of  these  savages.  They 
were  to  make  four  several  parties  for  the  ensuing 
spring :  one  to  go  towards  Kaskaskia  to  attack  the 
"rebels"  there ;  another  to  go  up  the  Ohio  to  assist  the 
Shawanese ;  a  third  to  go  to  the  Vincennes  to  make 
peace  with  the  Wabash  Indians  and  drive  the  Amer- 

are  the  last  words  of  the  Lieutenant  Governor's  letter.  Singu 
larly  enough,  Haldimand  did  not  comprehend  the  meaning  of 
the  words  —  "the  waters  being  out"  —  made  use  of  by  the 
Indians  to  convey  the  idea  of  the  overflow  of  the  streams 
and  consequent  inundation  of  the  country. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.  247 

icans  out  of  their  country  (they  not  knowing  of  Ham 
ilton's  presence  there  at  the  time),  and  the  fourth  to 
remain  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee  river  to  inter 
cept  any  boats  coming  up  from  the  Mississippi  or 
going  down  the  Ohio.  The  nations  reported  to  the 
commander  as  having  formed  this  plan  were  the 
Chickasaws,  Cherokees,  Choctaws  and  Alabamas.*  It 
was  also  reported  that  they  were  to  start  out  during 
the  month  of  January,  having  with  them  four  white 
officers,  who  have  spent  the  winter  thus  far,  on  the 
Tennessee. 

Hamilton,  of  course,  was  much  elated  at  the  news. 
He  had  already  detached  from  his  force  an  officer  with 
thirty  soldiers,  also  a  party  of  savages  with  a  chief,  to 
go  to  the  Tennessee  river  to  acquaint  the  savages  as 
sembled  there  of  his  being  in  possession  of  Vincennes 
and  to  encourage  them  to  persevere  in  their  designs 
against  the  "rebels."  At  the  mouth  of  the  Wabash, 
they  were  met  by  some  Delawares  and  Peorias  who 
had  lately  come  from  the  Tennessee,  who  informed 
them  that  the  Indians  were  dispersed,  hunting  three 
hundred  miles  up  that  river.f  Thereupon  the  officer 
and  white  soldiers,  after  losing  a  corporal  and  seven 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Jan.  24-28,  1779.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  LXXVI.) 

t  These  savages,  for  certain  reasons  hereafter  mentioned, 
did  not  meet  subsequently  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee. 
It  may  be  premised  that  whatever  action  was  taken  by  the 
British  because  of  the  letter  sent  south  by  Hamilton,  to 
Stuart,  British  agent  of  Indian  Affairs,  nothing  to  the  injury 
of  the  Americans  came  of  it.  It  has  been  asserted  that  stores 
and  goods  to  a  large  amount  (£20,000)  were  soon  collected  at 
the  Chickamauga  Indian  towns,  on  the  Tennessee,  for  dis 
tribution  at  the  grand  council  to  be  had  with  Hamilton  and 
the  Northern  Indians;  but  this  is  now  known  to  "be  error. 


248       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

men  by  desertion,  and  capturing  some  Frenchmen,  in 
a  boat -loaded  with  flour  on  its  way  from  Kaskaskia  to 
Vincennes,  returned  up  the  Wabash,  informing  Ham 
ilton  that  the  deserters,  who  were  all  from  Lamothe's 
company,  went  off  in  the  night,  taking  the  canoe  and 
their  officer's  baggage  with  them;  and  that  they  had 
probably  gone  to  Kaskaskia,  where  some  of  them  had 
relatives.  But  the  Indians  with  the  chief  (an  Ottawa) 
did  not  at  once  return  to  Vincennes.  They  deter 
mined  upon  "a  decouvertc"  as  Hamilton  expresses  it, 
to  Kaskaskia.  With  this  war-party  were  Charles 
Beaubien,  interpreter  to  the  Miami  Indians  and  Hy~ 
polite  Boulon  who  had  reached  the  mouth  of  the  Wa 
bash  on  their  way  to  Kaskaskia  or  its  vicinity.  Ham 
ilton  had  intrusted  to  them  written  messages  and  let 
ters  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Illinois,*  to  be  delivered 
should  circumstances  be  found  favorable  for  so  doing ; 
hence  their  desire  to  go  with  the  Ottawa  chief  on  his 
"dccouvcrte"  to  Kaskaskia.  Now,  there  was  one  mes 
sage  —  a  copy  of  a  written  proclamation  —  intrusted 
to  Beaubien,  directed  to  the  people  of  the  Illinois  gen 
erally,  that  was  intended  to  work  upon  their  fears,  but 
which  proved,  as  the  sequel  shows,  far-reaching  in  its 
effect  for  evil  —  not  upon  the  Illinois  people,  but  upon 
Hamilton  himself.  He  gave  in  detail  a  list  of  savage 
nations  whom  he  declared  were  already  leagued  with 
him  to  wage  war  on  the  frontiers. f 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 

t  But  if  you  will  be  so  good  as  to  recur  to  the  address 
of  [Hamilton  to  the  people  of]  the  Illinois,  which  you  refer 
to,  you  will  find  that  although  it  does  not  in  express  terms 
threaten  vengeance,  blood  and  massacre,  yet  it  proves  that  the 
Governor  [Hamilton]  had  made  for  us  the  most  ample  pro 
vision  for  all  these  calamities.  He  then  gives  in  detail,  the 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      249 

The  war  party  of  savages  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Wabash  were  not  successful  in  its  march  against  Kas- 
kaskia.  "The  Indian  chief,"  wrote  Hamilton,  "who 
is  not  yet  returned  from  Kaskaskia,  had  nearly  taken 
prisoner  Colonel  Clark,  the  commandant  of  the  rebels 
there,  but  some  negroes  discovered  the  chief  and  he 
was  obliged  to  retire  without  effecting  his  purpose.* 
But  further  mention  of  this  expedition  is  hereafter 
made. 

There  were  other  matters  besides  repairing  Fort 
Sackville  and  attending  to  Indian  reports  which  en 
gaged  the  earnest  attention  of  Hamilton.  One  was 
the  attitude  of  the  Spanish  towards  the  English  on  the 
Mississippi.  The  aid  given  by  the  former  to  the 
"rebels"  at  New  Orleans  and  the  sympathy  extended 
to  them  (if  nothing  more)  at  Ste.  Genevieve  and  St. 
Louis  were  well  understood  by  the  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor  even  before  his  leaving  Detroit  and  additional 
facts  had  now  reached  him  from  the  disclosures  of 
prisoners  which  gave  him  much  uneasiness.  He  re 
solved,  after  giving  the  subject  much  thought  to  write 
two  letters :  one  to  Captain  Bloomer,  the  English  com 
mandant  at  the  Natches,  whose  principal  business  was 
to  intercept  succour  from  New  Orleans  to  the  "rebels ;" 

horrid  catalogue  of  savage  nations,  extending  from  south,  to 
north,  whom  he  had  leagued  with  himself  to  wage  combined 
war  on  our  frontiers;  and  it  is  well  known  that  the  war 
would,  of  course,  be  made  up  of  blood  and  general  massacre 
of  men,  women  and  children." — (Jefferson  to  the  Governor 
of  Detroit  —  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  I,  p.  322.) 

As  this  proclamation  was  dated  Dec.  29,  1778,  the  sending 
of  the  force  intended  for  the  Tennessee,  could  not  have  been 
much,  if  any,  later  than  that  date. 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Jan.  24-30th,  1779.  —  Haldi- 
mand  MSS. 


250       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC, 

and  one  to  the  Spanish  governor  of  the  place  last  men 
tioned.  As  he  had  some  suspicion  what  he  wrote  to 
Captain  Bloomer  might  be  carried  to  Governor  Gal- 
vez,  he  wrote,  he  declares  in  such  a  manner  "as  must 
dispose  the  Spaniards  (if  it  should  chance  to  fall  into 
their  hands)  to  keep  close  at  home." 

"Though  I  have  no  doubt  at  this  minute,"  said 
Hamilton  in  conveying  the  foregoing  intelligence  to 
the  commander-in-chief,  "of  the  existence  of  a  Spainsh 
as  well  as  a  French  war,  still  I  have  as  yet  no  account 
by  which  I  may  venture  to  act  on  the  offensive  against 
the  subjects  of  Spain,  which  -I  ardently  desire,  as  there 
would  be  so  little  difficulty  in  pushing  them  entirely 
out  of  the  Mississippi.  They  have  had  but  one  boat 
from  New  Orleans  this  autumn  and  that  loaded  with 
liquor.  The  garrisons  in  their  posts  are  inconsider 
able  and  our  alliance  with  the  Indian  nations  so  ex 
tended  that  the  Spaniards  can  have  but  a  slender  in 
fluence  with  them.  The  rebels  have  had  every  succour 
and  encouragement  from  them  they  could  expect ;  and 
I  believe  their  hatred  and  jealousy  of  the  English  noth 
ing  abated  since  their  disgraceful  check  at  the  Ha 
vana."* 

"Mr.  Le  Comte  having  desired  permission  to  pass 
to  New  Orleans,"  said  Hamilton,  in  his  letter  to  Gov 
ernor  Galvez,  "I  embrace  the  opportunity  of  kissing 
your  Excellency's  hands  and  at  the  same  time  of  ac 
quainting  you  with  the  circumstance  which  procures 
me  that  honor.  The  rebel  Americans  having  got 
footing  in  the  Illinois  country,  and  having  opened 
communication  to  the  colonies  by  taking  post  there  and 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Jan.  24-30,  1779.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       251 

at  this  place,  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  dispossess  them 
as  soon  as  possible.  For  this  I  set  out  with  a  small 
force  from  Detroit  so  late  as  the  seventh  of  last  Oc 
tober  and  arrived  here  on  the  seventeenth  of  Decem 
ber,  having  a  few  chiefs  and  warriors  of  thirteen  dif 
ferent  nations  along  with  me.  Having  taken  posses 
sion  of  the  fort  here  and  having  received  the  submis 
sion  of  the  inhabitants,  who  laid  down  their  arms  and 
swore  allegiance  to  his  Britannic  Majesty,  I  have  con 
tented  myself  this  winter  with  sending  out  parties  to 
different  quarters." 

"Your  Excellency,"  continued  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor,  "cannot  be  unacquainted  with  what  waa 
commonly  practiced  in  the  time  of  your  predecessor  in 
the  government  of  New  Orleans,  —  I  mean  the  send 
ing  supplies  of  gunpowder  and  other  stores  to  the 
rebels  then  in  arms  against  their  sovereign.  Though 
this  may  have  been  transacted  in  a  manner  unknown  to 
the  governor,  by  the  merchants,  I  must  suppose  that, 
under  your  Excellency's  orders,  such  commerce  will 
be  positively  prohibited.  The  several  nations  of  sav 
ages  who  accompanied  me  to  this  country  may,  if  this 
traffic  be  continued,  forget  the  instructions  I  have 
given  them  from  time  to  time  with  relation  to  the  sub 
jects  of  his  Catholic  Majesty;  and  the  nations  inhab 
iting  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  river  must  be  particularly 
jealous  of  strangers  coming  through  their  country  to 
supply  the  rebels,  with  whom  they  are  actually  at  war." 

"At  the  same  time,"  added  the  commander,  "that 
I  mention  this  to  your  Excellency  for  the  sake  of  indi 
viduals  who  might  suffer  from  their  ignorance  of  the 
English  being  in  possession  of  this  post  and  of  the 
communication  by  water  to  the  Mississippi,  —  I  think 


252       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

it  incumbent  on  me  to  represent  to  your  Excellency 
that  the  rebels  at  Kaskaskia  being  in  daily  apprehen 
sion  of  the  arrival  of  a  body  of  men  from  the  upper 
posts  accompanied  by  the  savages  from  that  quarter, 
have  declared  that  they  will  take  refuge  on  the  Spanish 
territory  as  soon  as  they  are  apprized  of  their  coming." 

"As  it  is  my  intention,"  are  the  concluding  words 
of  Hamilton,  "early  in  the  spring  to  go  towards  the 
Illinois,  I  shall  represent  to  the  officers  commanding 
several  small  forts  and  posts  on  the  Mississippi  for  his 
Catholic  Majesty,  the  impropriety  of  affording  an 
asylum  to  rebels  in  arms  against  their  lawful  sover 
eign.  If,  after  such  a  representation,  the  rebels  should 
find  shelter  in  any  fort  or  post  on  the  Mississippi,  it 
will  become  my  duty  to  dislodge  them,  in  which  case 
their  protectors  must  blame  their  own  conduct,  if  they 
should  suffer  any  inconvenience  in  consequence. — 
Perhaps  I  may  be  favored  with  a  letter  from  your  Ex 
cellency  before  the  arrival  of  the  reinforcements  I  ex 
pect  next  spring;  and  that  the  officers  acting  under 
your  Excellency's  orders  may  receive  from  you  how 
they  are  to  act  —  whether  as  friends  or  enemies  to  the 
British  empire."* 

Strengthening  Fort  Sackville  was  continued  by 
Hamilton,. his  attention  being  especially  directed  to  the 
finishing  of  the  blockhouses,  which  were  being  built  of 
squared  oak  logs.  Indian  war-parties  continued  to 
be  sent  out  towards  the  Kentucky  settlements  and  to 
watch  the  road  to  the  Illinois.  As  the  month  of  Jan 
uary  was  wearing  away,  the  Lieutenant-Governor  be 
came  anxious  as  to  his  situation.  "I  impatiently  wait 
your  Excellency's  orders  and  instructions,"  are  his 

*  Hamilton  to  Galvez,  Jan.  13,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      253 

words  to  the  Commander-in-Chief ;  "and  I  hope  to  see 
a  few  troops  here,  —  without  them,  most  certainly 
there  will  be  no  hold  on  the  French  or  Indians  and 
nothing  can  be  done  of  what  ought  to  be  against  the 
Americans."* 

The  commander  determined  that  as  soon  as  the 
season  would  permit,  he  would  send  up  to  the  head  of 
the  Maumee  for  the  provisions  which  had  been 
received  there  in  November  previous  from  De 
troit,  —  sent  forward  by  Captain  Lernoult  not  a  great 
while  after  the  departure  of  Hamilton.  "Vincennes," 
wrote  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  "is  incapable  of  fur 
nishing  a  quantity,  and  everything  is  so  intolerably 
dear  that  I  am  afraid  of  incurring  more  expense  than 
I  can  possibly  avoid.  Our  men  off  duty,  go  over  the 
river  for  wood,  but  cannot  cut  enough  for  their  con 
sumption,  so  that  it  is  purchased  from  the  inhabitants 
at  two  dollars  for  four-fifths  of  a  cord." 

"Lieutenant  Du  Vernet,"  added  the  commander, 
"has  desired  leave  to  return  to  Detroit.  I  could  wish 
to  detain  him,  but  he  urges  it;  and,  as  he  came  thus 
far  voluntarily,  I  do  not  choose  to  insist  on  his  re 
maining.'^ 

In  his  own  room  on  Fort  Sackville,  the  com 
mander,  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  January,  held  a  council 
with  his  Indian  allies  and  with  others  who  now  seemed 
inclined,  to  all  outward  appearance,  to  become  such. 
There  were  present  Shawanese,  Ottawas,  Chippewas, 
Wyandots  (Hurons),  Miamis,  Piankeshaws,  Kicka- 
poos,  Weas,  Delawares  and  a  man  from  the  Creek 
nation. 

*  Same    to    Haldimand,    Jan.    24-30,    1779.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 
fid. 


254       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


An  Ottawa  chief  opened  the  proceedings.  Ris 
ing  to  his  feet,  he  saluted  "the  British  King,  the  great 
chief  at  Quebec  [General  Haldimand],  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  Detroit,  all  the  King's  subjects,  and  the 
several  nations  of  Indians,"  -  —  all  in  the  name  of  the 
chiefs  then  present.  He  then  addressed  himself  to  the 
Shawanese  and  Delawares,  in  particular,  exhorting 
them  to  exert  themselves  and  be  firm  in  their  attach- 
ment  to  their  father  [Hamilton]  and  all  the  Indians 
his  children.  "It  is  the  pleasure,"  said  this  Indian  or 
ator,  "of  the  Great  Spirit  that  we  should  all  meet  this 
day  in  friendship.  Let  us  then  continue  in  these  good 
dispositions  and  be  of  one  heart  and  mind  in  acting  in 
concert  with  our  father  for  the  defence  of  our  lands. 
You  see  our  father  has  it  at  heart,  since  he  is  come 
thus  far  with  that  design.  You  have  seen  the  at 
tempts  of  the  Virginians  to  dispossess  us." 

And  thus  continued  the  Ottawa  chief:  "Breth 
ren  !  You  know  that  the  great  tree  under  whose  shade 
we  consult  together  is  not  planted  here,  but  at  Detroit. 
Let  us  take  care  to  prop  that  tree  that  it  may  not  lean 
to  one  side  or  the  other.  Let  us  keep  it  well  watered 
that  its  branches  may  shoot  up  to  the  clouds.  Who 
is  there  so  daring  as  to  cut  the  bark  of  that  tree  ?  No 
one. 

"Brethren!  You  may  remember  that  last  spring 
some  Chickasaws  and  Cherokees  came  to  Detroit  to 
water  that  tree.  Be  advised  by  our  father ;  he  is  doing 
all  he  can  to  maintain  us  in  the  possession  of  those 
lands  on  which  the  Master  of  Life  has  thought  to 
place  us." 

A  Shawanese  then  spoke.  "Father  and  you  my 
brethren !  Five  months  are  now  passed  since  we  left 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       255 

our  own  village  to  go  to  the  Creek  country,  whence  we 
are  just  returned.  On  our  leaving  this  place,  the  com 
mandant  of  the  fort  [Captain  Helm] gave  us  a  letter 
for  the  chief  of  the  Creeks ;  but,  as  we  apprehended  it 
might  contain  something  which  would  make  the  In 
dians  uneasy,  we  did  not  deliver  it,  but  have  brought 
it  to  our  father  sealed.  We  met  on  our  road  hither, 
Kissingua  and  a  white'  man  [those  that  were  sent  to 
Mr.  Stuart  by  Lieutenant-Governor  Hamilton]  on 
their  way  to  that  country.  Kissingua  desired  us  to  tell 
the  Indians  of  this  [the  Wabash]  river  to  assemble  all 
the  prisoners  they  may  have  belonging  to  the  Creeks, 
as  he  designed  bringing  in  exchange  any  of  them 
which  might  be  in  that  country." 

The  Shawanese  then  delivered  the  letter  to  the 
Lieutenant-Governor,  which  was  addressed  to  the 
chief  man  of  the  Creeks,  requiring  him  to  keep  his 
people  quiet  and  not  to  give  credit  to  what  he  should 
be  told  by  the  English ;  and  that  the  Shawanese  and 
Wabash  Indians  were  in  friendship  with  the  Virgin 
ians,  and  referring  him  to  the  bearers  for  an  account  of 
the  state  of  affairs  in  America. 

The  same  Shawanese  then  produced  a  long,  white 
belt,  sent  by  the  great  chief  of  the  Creeks,  which  he 
had  desired  might  be  delivered  at  Vincennes ;  then  sent 
up  to  Wea;  and  thence  to  the  Lake  Indians;  that 
all  the  Indians  might  know  the  design  of  the 
Creeks,  namely :  to  be  in  friendship  with  them  and 
at  war  with  the  Virginians ;  that,  by  that  belt  they 
opened  a  road  which  should  be  kept  free  and  open  so 
that  a  child  might  walk  safely  in  it.  He  then  deliv 
ered  to  the  Grande  Couette,  the  principal  Piankeshaw 
war  chief,  a  roll  of  Creek  tobacco  for  him  and  his  al- 


256       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

lies  to  smoke,  adding  in  the  name  of  the  Creek  chief, 
that  he  smoked  of  that  tobacco  when  he  thought  on 
good  things,  and  had  pity  on  his  women  and  children. 

The  Shawanese  then  told  the  chiefs  present  that 
the  upper  town  of  the  Creeks  had  not  taken  up  the 
hatchet  against  the  Virginians  till  the  last  Spring,  but 
that  now  they  were  all  joined ;  that  they  had  ravaged 
the  frontiers  as  far  as  the  old  Shawanese  villages ;  that 
they  had  taken  several  small  forts;  that  the  English 
had  eight  forts  besides  a  great  one  of  stone  (perhaps 
meaning  the  one  at  St.  Augustine)  ;  that  the  "rebels" 
had  made  an  attempt  on  that  one,  but  that  the  Indians 
had  assembled  and  forced  them  back;  that  eight  hun 
dred  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Colonies  had  come  for 
protection  to  the  English,  almost  naked ;  that  they  had 
quarreled  among  each  other  and  several  had  been 
killed ;  that  the  Indians  were  taken  great  care  of  by 
Mr.  Stuart,  the  Indian  agent;  that  they  wanted  for 
nothing,  having  never  before  been  so  well  supplied; 
and  that  the  "rebels"  said  they  were  not  alone  —  the 
French  and  the  Spaniards  having  joined  them.* 

Three  days  thereafter,  the  Grande  Couette,  a 
Piankeshaw  chief,  delivered  to  Lieutenant-Governor 
Hamilton  a  string  with  a  scalp  hanging  to  it,  and  said 
that  he  spoke  in  the  name  of  all  the  Wabash  Indians, 
who  had  now  found  their  father ;  that  they  had  re 
ceived  his  hatchet  and  would  use  it  with  all  their 
hearts;  that  they  saw  with  pleaasure  the  messengers 
from  the  Creeks,  Choctaws  and  Chickasaws,  and  the 
belt  which  they  brought  would  open  the  eyes  of  all 
their  people,  men,  women  and  children,  who  might 

*  Substance  of  a  Conference  with  the  Indians  at  Vincen- 
nes,  Jan.  26,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       257 

now  see  an  open  sky  and  a  clear  road;  that  the  Great 
Spirit  certainly  had  compassion  on  the  Indians  as  he 
had  brought  them  together  in  peace;  that  he  (the 
Piankeshaw  chief)  would  acquaint  the  Wabash  In 
dians  of  the  treaty  of  peace  presented  by  the  Southern 
Indians ;  and,  that  it  might  be  known  to  the  northward, 
he  delivered  their  road  belt  to  the  Miamis.  The 
Miamis  said  they  would  deliver  it  to  their  elders,  the 
Ottawas,  who  would  forward  it.  The  string  with  the 
scalp  was  then  delivered  by  Hamilton  to  the  Chippe- 
was  to  carry  to  Detroit  to  be  shown  to  the  Lake  In 
dians.* 

On  the  twenty-sixth  of  January,  Hamilton  wrote 
the  commander-in-chief  that  almost  all  the  Indians 
were  gone  to  their  home  or  were  on  the  point  of  mov 
ing  off.  The  most  of  them,  he  declared,  promised  to 
return  to  Vincennes  soon  or  send  others  in  their  room. 
"It  is  remarkable,"  said  the  Lieutenant-Governor, 
"that  not  a  man  has  died  of  either  whites  or  Indians 
since  our  setting  out  [from  Detroit],  which  circum 
stance  has  great  weight  with  superstitious  people  such 
as  these  are  [under  my  command]." 

"Your  Excellency  will  pardon  me,"  continued 
Hamilton,  "if  I  mention  the  necessity  of  a  supply  of 
arms,  ammunition  and  clothing  sufficient  for  keeping 
in  their  present  disposition  such  a  number  of  Indians 
as  we  wish  to  have  dependent  on  us  and  of  course  can 
not  be  clothed,  armed  or  fed  but  at  a  very  great  ex 
pense.  I  have  it  not  in  my  power,  as  yet,  to  procure 
an  estimate  of  the  numbers  which  will  make  their  ap 
plications  at  this  place ;  but  I  am  humbly  of  opinion  no 

*  Hamilton's   Report,   Jan.  29,    1779.  —  Haldimand   MSS. 
(See  Appendix,  Note  LXXVII.) 
17 


258       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

time  should  be  lost  in  sending  them  from  below,  as  the 
passage  of  the  Miami  river  [Maumee]  is  very  precar 
ious  even  in  May,  from  the  scarcity  of  water,  which  is 
so  great  sometimes  as  not  to  admit  of  pirogues. 

"However  inconvenient  and  disagreeable  my  stay 
ing  at  this  place  may  be,  I  shall  content  myself  as  long 
as  your  Excellency  may  judge  it  necessary  or  in  any 
way  conducive  to  the  service ;  and  if  there  should  be  a 
call  for  my  going  further  on  this  communication,  I 
shall  always  be  ready  to  act  for  the  best." 

The  next  day  Hamilton  continued  his  relation: 
"The  Ottawas,"  said  he,  "came  to  me  this  day  with 
their  chiefs,  who  told  me  they  were  determined  to  stay 
with  me  and  go  wherever  I  should  order  them ;  and 
that  if  I  meant  to  go  to  Kaskaskia,  they  would  go  also. 

"The  Chippewas  almost  all  go  home ;  but  they  tell 
me  I  may  expect  a  number  of  them  in  the  spring. 

"The  Hurons  [  Wyandots]  also  go  home  ;  but  they 
promise  to  give  such  an  account  of  their  treatment  and 
of  what  has  passed  as  will  induce  their  people  to  come 
this  way  in  the  spring. 

"The  Shawanese  are  inveterate  against  the  Vir 
ginians.  A  party  of  them  sets  off  to-morrow  towards 
the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  which  river  they  purpose 
crossing. 

"The  Delawares  [or  Loupes]  hereabouts  have  lost 
some  relations  lately  killed  by  the  Virginians.  One  of 
them  has  a  rebel  passport  which  he  makes  use  of  to 
get  through  the  settlement. 

"The  Wabash  Indians  are  to  be  expected  to  act 
only  from  the  motive  of  fear  of  the  other  confederate 
Indians  —  not  having  the  spirit  of  either  the  South 
ern  or  Northern  nations,  Their  situation  makes  them 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       259 

apprehensive  of  another  visit  from  the  Virginians. 
Nothing  but  a  force  sufficient  to  protect  them  will  en 
gage  them  to  act  steadily."* 

Major  Hay,  as  Deputy  Indian  Agent,  had  assid 
uously  applied  himself  to  the  duties  of  his  office  since 
his  arrival  in  Vincennes.  Before  the  ending  of  Jan 
uary,  he  wrote  to  the  Agent  at  Niagara :  "We  are," 
said  he,  "at  so  great  a  distance  from  one  another  at 
present  that  it  is  impossible  to  communicate  Indian 
intelligence  so  often  as  formerly.  You  have,  how 
ever,  been  informed  of  everything  of  consequence  (if 
anything  there  was)  until  our  arrival  here.  It  was 
high  time  some  measures  were  taken  to  calm  the  minds 
of  the  nations  in  this  country,  and  to  turn  the  tide  that 
was  carrying  them  away  from  the  interest  of  Govern 
ment  and  consequently  their  own.  They  have  not, 
however,  shown  the  spirit  or  inclination  to  act  that 
might  have  been  wished ;  neither  is  there  anything  to 
be  expected  from  them,  but  what  the  influence  of  other 
nations  may  prompt  them  to  do  .  .  .  but,  as  there 
is  now  a  communication  opened  between  the  Lake  In 
dians  and  those  of  the  Creeks  and  Alabamas,  probably 
before  the  summer  is  over  they  will  all  act.  The  diffi 
culties  of  transportation  of  provisions  and  other  arti 
cles  from  Detroit  hither  is  a  great  obstacle  to  the  as 
sembling  the  numbers  that  we  might  easily  collect.  A 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  January  24-30,  1779.  —  Haldi- 
mand  MSS.  "The  several  nations  of  Indians  inhabiting  the 
banks  of  the  Ouabache  [Wabash],  came  in  at  different  times, 
made  great  professions,  and  declared  their  distrust  of  the  Vir 
ginians  ;  but  there  was  but  one  chief  with  his  party  who 
really  acted  with  zeal  and  spirit,  although  the  Lake  Indians 
showed  them  a  very  good  example."  —  Hamilton  to  Haldi 
mand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


260       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

party  of  Shawanese,  Delawares  and  Piankeshaws  set 
out  this  day  for  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  by  which  you 
see  some  of  those  of  this  place  join  the  last." 

"If  the  inhabitants  of  this  place,"  continued  Hay, 
"were  as  much  to  be  depended  on  as  are  the  Indians, 
something  might  be  attempted  at  present  from  here ; 
but  there  are  a  set  that  requires  force  to  make  them 
obedient  and  are  consequently  a  dangerous  set  to  be 
left  in  the  least  [to  themselves]  ,'.;,,  .•>•  .  The  rebel 
commandant,  Captain  Helm,  told  me  that,  for  these 
two  summers  past,  the  parties  that  went  from  Detroit 
and  the  Lakes  prevented  upwards  of  ten  thousand  men 
joining  the  rebel  army.  We  have  not  heard  from  De 
troit  since  the  fourth  of  November ;  but  I  am  in  hopes 
of  hearing  not  only  from  there,  but  from  Niagara."* 

Writing  on  the  same  day  as  Hay,  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor  informed  General  Haldimand  that  he  had 
first  raised  one  of  the  blockhouses  of  the  fort,  and  that 
a  party  (the  same  mentioned  by  the  Deputy  Indian 
Agent)  had  set  off  on  a  scout  to  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio 
— another  of  Pottawattamies  and  Chippewas  to  follow 
them  shortly.  "Lieutenant  Duvermet  tells  me,"  are 
the  words  of  Hamilton,  in  addition,  "he  shall  have  the 
draft  of  this  river  ready  to  send  off  to  your  Excellency 
in  a  week  after  his  arrival  at  Detroit."  It  is  to  be 
presumed  the  Lieutenant  soon  left  Vincennes. 

*  Hay  to  Butler,  January  28,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 
It  is  doubtful  if  any  single  remark  made  by  any  one  could 
have  been  more  unfortunate  than  this  of  Helm,  so  far  as 
the  cause  of  America  was  concerned  in  the  West.  To  prevent 
men  from  joining  the  "rebel"  army  in  the  East  was  exactly 
what  Germain  was  desirous  of  accomplishing  by  his  barbarous 
policy,  as  Hay  well  knew. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       261 

The  commandant  informed  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  on  the  thirtieth  of  January,  that  the  next  day, 
Adhemar  St.  Martin,  the  Commissary,  would  set  out, 
with  ten  pirogues  and  thirty  of  the  inhabitants  of  Vin- 
cennes  as  crews,  for  "the  Miamis"  (Fort  Miami  — 
head  of  the  Maumee),  to  get  the  provisions  and  goods 
sent  in  November  from  Detroit.*  And  he  added 
that  a  party  of  Piankeshaws  on  the  day  on  which  he 
writes  "set  off  for  war  to  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio.  This 
day,  also,  a  Peoria  chief  came  to  give  me  his  hand.  I 
gave  him  an  English  medal  in  exchange  for  his  French 
one." 

"I  may  venture  to  affirm,"  continued  Hamilton, 
"that  the  Indians  of  this  country  are  as  much  united 
as  can  be  expected,  considering  the  differences  which 
have  existed  for  several  years  among  some  of  them 
and  which  are  not  easily  accommodated." 

"By  the  returns  I  have  the  honor  to  send  to  your 
Excellency  of  this  garrison,"  added  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor,  "it  will  appear  that  regulars  are  very  few  in 
numbers ;  and  I  need  not  observe  how  much  I  stand  in 
need  of  the  assistance  of  regular  officers.  I  have  such 
frequent  interruptions  from  the  savages,  who  have  no 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Jan.  24-30,  1779.  —  Haldimand' 
MSS.  The  provisions  were  those  sent  by  Lernoult ;  the 
goods,  those  forwarded  by  Macomb.  In  his  letter  of  July  6, 
1781,  the  Lieutenant  Governor  simply  says  "thirty  men"  went 
with  the  Commissary. 

In  "Bowman's  Journal"  in  the  Department  of  State  MSS., 
December  (1778)  is  given  as  the  month  in  which  the  boats 
were  ordered  to  "Omi"  (Fort  Miami  —  head  of  the  Maumee) 
by  Hamilton,  which,  of  course,  is  error.  In  the  same,  in 
Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois  (p.  108),  the  month  is  stated 
to  have  been  October  (1778)  —  placing  it  still  farther  from 
the  true  date. 


262       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

other  council  chamber  but  my  bedroom,  that  I  am  sen 
sible  my  letters  testify  to  a  great  want  of  order  and 
method."* 

On  the  seventh  of  February,  Captain  McKee 
started  on  his  return  to  the  homes  of  the  Shawanese  in 
the  Ohio  wilderness.*  It  was  well,  perhaps,  for  this 
traitor  to  America  that  he  left  Vincennes.  His  active 
working  connection  with  the  expedition  was  the  first 
of  a  series  of  efforts  made  by  him  against  his  own 
country.  Undoubtedly  it  was  his  intention  to  come 
back  in  the  Spring  to  aid  in  the  movement  of  uniting 
the  Northern  and  Southern  Indian  nations.  But  his 
intention  was  not  carried  out.f 

Hamilton  continued  his  labors  upon  Fort  Sack- 
ville,  and  by  the  twenty-second  of  February  it  was  "in 
a  tolerable  state  of  defence,"  the  work  proposed  being 
finished,  except  the  lining  of  the  stockade. £ 

On  the  same  day,  Boatmaster  Francis  Maisonville 
returned  by  way  of  the  Wabash  from  an  expedition  in 
pursuit  of  Williams  (one  of  the  two  who  were  taken 
while  attempting  to  carry  Helm's  letter  to  Clark  at  the 
time  of  the  surrender  of  Fort  Sackville)  and  another, 
who  had  escaped  a  week  previous.  Maisonville  had 
been  unsuccessful  in  finding  these  men,  but  he  brought 
in  two  Virginian  prisoners  —  Captain  William  Shan 
non  and  another  —  whom  he  had  taken  on  the  Ohio. 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Jan.  24-30,  1779.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  (For  the  "Return"  the  Lieutenant  Governor  speaks 
of,  see  Appendix,  Note  LXXVIII.) 

f  Normand  McLeod  to  McKee,  April  6,  1779,  and  McKee 
to  Haldimand,  July  16,  same  year.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
The    last    sentence  —  "except   the    lining   of   the    stockade"  - 
is  omitted  in  this  letter  as  published  in  the  Michigan  Pioneer 
Collections,  vol.  IX,  p.  408. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       263 

They  were  of  a  party  of  four  from  Fort  Pitt  going  to 
Kaskaskia.  A  packet  of  letters  in  their  possession  was 
also  captured.* 

On  going  into  the  fort,  Maisonville  immediately 
took  Hamilton  aside  and  informed  him  that  he  had 
discovered  some  miles  below  the  town  a  number  of 
fires  ;f  but  he  could  not  say  whether  they  were  of  Vir 
ginians  or  Indians.  The  Lieutenant-Governor  imme 
diately  questioned  the  two  prisoners,  demanding  of 
them  if  they  could  give  him  any  further  intelligence 
than  what  they  had  already  communicated  on  their  ex 
amination  by  the  commandant.  They  declared  they 
could  not.  Hamilton  at  once  concluded  the  fires  were 
those  of  Americans  —  some  men  from  Kaskaskia  com 
ing  to  join  Captain  Helm  at  the  fort,  they  not  know 
ing  of  the  presence  there  of  any  of  the  King's  troops. J 
However,  he  would,  if  possible,  be  assured  that  such 

*  Account  brought  [into  Detroit]  from  Vincennes,  by 
Captain  [Isidore]  Chesne.  —  Haldimand  MSS. ;  Journal  of 
Coloned  George  Rogers  Clark,  from  Feb.  23,  to  Feb.  27,  1779, 
inclusive.  —  Haldimand  MSS.;  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July 
6,  1781  —  Germain  MSS..  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
pp.  70,  102 ;  —  "Bowman's  Journal,"  Department  of  State 
MSS. 

f  "Nine  miles  below  the  town" :  Schieffelin's  Loose 
Notes.  "Four  leagues  below  the  fort :"  Hamilton  to  Haldi 
mand,  July  6,  1781  —  Germain  MSS.  "About  six  miles:" 
Chesne's  Account.  Schieffelin,  in  his  Loose  Notes,  says,  "a 
number  of  fires  was  seen;"  in  his  letter  to  Haldimand,  just 
cited,  Hamilton  enumerates  fourteen.  Chesne  gives  fifteen 
as  the  number. 

t  Chesne's  Account.  Clark  says  Hamilton  "supposed  [the 
makers  of  the  fires]  to  be  spies  from  Kentucky."  (Clark  to 
Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  70.)  This, 
however,  is  not  probable ;  I  have  relied,  rather,  on  the  state 
ment  of  Chesne. 


264       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

was  the  fact;  so  he  immediately  sent  off  Captain 
Lamothe,  Lieutenant  Schieffelin  and  twenty  men  to 
reconnoitre,  hoping  they  would  be  able  to  bring  him  a 
more  perfect  account  than  the  one  he  had  obtained 
from  Maisonville.  As  the  water  of  the  river  was 
overflowing  its  banks  the  meadows  were  all  sub 
merged  ;  and  it  was  necessary  for  the  party  to  make  a 
considerable  circuit.  Maisonville,  although  much 
fatigued,  took  it  upon  himself  to  serve  as  guide.* 

Hamilton  now  ordered  the  militia  of  Vincennes 
under  arms.  Major  Legras  and  Captain  Bosseron 
with  several  of  the  privates  being  reported  absent,  the 
commandant  suspected  treachery ;  the  two  officers, 
however,  made  their  appearance  at  sunset.  About  five 
minutes  after  candles  had  been  lighted,  the  garrison 
was  alarmed  by  hearing  a  discharge  of  musketry; 
presently,  there  was  another  discharge.  The  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor  concluded  that  some  party  of  Indians 
was  returned,,  or  that  there  was  a  riotous  frolic  in  the 
village.  However,  he  thought  best  to  go  out  on  the 
parade  ground  to  make  inquiry,  when  he  heard  the 
whistling  of  balls.  Immediately  all  inside  the  fort 
were  ordered  to  the  blockhouses,  with  a  command  not 
to  fire  until  they  should  perceive  the  shots  were  di 
rected  against  the  fortification.  But  Hamilton  and  his 
men  were  soon  out  of  suspense  —  one  of  the  sergeants 
receiving  a  bullet  in  his  breast. f  The  fort  was  as- 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
In  his  Loose  Notes,  Lieutenant  Schieffelin  does  not  give  the 
number  sent  off,  but  says:  "A  detachment  of  the  VHIth 
[regiment]  and  Detroit  Volunteers  was  immediately  dis 
patched  to  reconnoiter."  Chesne  confirms  the  number  — 
twenty  —  given  by  Hamilton  to  Haldimand. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      265 

sailed  by  enemies  —  that  was  evident ;  but  who  were 
the  assailants?  Presently,  we  shall  see. 

It  is  pertinent  now,  before  following  farther  the 
events  of  interest  transpiring  in  the  Illinois  and  upon 
the  Wabash,  that  a  brief  mention  be  made  of  a  few  of 
the  more  important  incidents  which,  about  this  period, 
occurred  to  the  eastward,  on  the  upper  waters  of  the 
Ohio. 

From  the  Alleghany  mountains  to  the  Ohio,  and, 
from  a  point  some  distance  up. the  Alleghany  river  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha,  is  a  region,  which, 
from  what  has  already  been  narrated,  it  is  evident  had 
been  more  or  less  exposed  to  savage  aggressions  ever 
since  the  time  Indians  west  of  the  Ohio  had,  to  any 
extent,  become  hostile.  Not  only  Virginia  and  Penn 
sylvania,  but  the  General  Government  also,  had  ac 
tively  engaged  in  endeavors  to  protect  the  settlers,  but 
with  varying  success.  The  sending  of  Brigadier  Gen 
eral  Hand  of  the  Continental  army  to  take  command 
of  the  Western  Department  with  headquarters  at  Fort 
Pitt,  at  the  commencement  of  the  summer  of  1777, 
gave  much  confidence  to  the  oppressed  people. 
Scarcely,  however,  had  Clark  departed  upon  his  expe 
dition  before  the  General  was,  at  his  own  request,  re 
called,  and  Brigadier  General  Lachlan  Mclntosh  sent 
to  take  the  command  at  Pittsburg,  where  he  arrived 
early  in  August,  1778. 

In  November,  of  the  year  last  mentioned,  Mc 
lntosh  with  a  considerable  force  —  the  largest  col 
lected  by  the  Americans  west  of  the  Alleghanies  dur 
ing  the  Revolution  —  moved  westward,  ostensibly 
against  Detroit ;  but  he  marched  no  farther  than  the 
Tuscarawas  river,  principally  because  of  a  lack  of  sup- 


266 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


plies ;  and  thence,  after  commencing  Fort  Laurens  and 
leaving  a  small  number  of  men  to  continue  the  work, 
he  returned,  with  the  residue  of  his  army  to  Fort  Mc- 
Intosh  —  a  post  he  had  erected  on  the  right  bank  of 
the  Ohio,  some  distance  below  Fort  Pitt.  In  April, 
1779,  Mclntosh  retired  from  the  command  of  the 
Western  Department,  being  succeeded  by  Colonel 
Daniel  Brodhead,  who  had  direction  of  military  af 
fairs  therein  until  the  fall  of  1781. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

A  RUMOR  of  Clark's  success  in  the  Illinois  in 
the  early  part  of  July  reached  Williamsburg 
before  the  arrival  of  Montgomery  with  let 
ters  and  dispatches  from  the  Colonel.  The  rejoicing 
was  great,  but  many  discredited  the  report;  "it  was 
too  good  to  be  true."  Finally,  there  was  a  confirma 
tion  of  the  news  when  the  Captain  reached  the  capital, 
having  Rocheblave  in  charge  and  bringing  full  ac 
counts  from  the  Colonel  himself.*  Nothing  so  cheer 
ing  had  before  been  received  from  the  Western  coun 
try  since  the  war  began.  Those  who  had  been  fore 
most  in  encouraging  the  expedition  were  especially 
jubilant. 

"By  dispatches  which  I  have  just  received  from  Col 
onel  Clark,"  wrote  Governor  Henry,  "it  appears  that 
his  success  has  equalled  the  most  sanguine  expectations. 
He  has  not  only  reduced  Fort  Chartres  and  its  de 
pendences  [the  Governor  meaning  the  Illinois  towns] 
but  he  has  struck  such  terror  into  the  Indian  tribes, 
between  that  settlement  and  the  lakes  that  no  less  than 
five  of  them  .  .  .  who  had  received  the  hatchet 
from  the  English  emissaries,  have  submitted  to  our 
arms,  given  up  all  their  English  presents,  and  bound 
themselves  by  treating  and  promising  to  be  peaceable 
in  future." 

*  "Major  [George]  Rogers  Clark,  the  conqueror  of  the 
Illinois,  has  sent  in  the  late  Governor  of  the  British  settle 
ment  there,  a  Frenchman  by  birth,  who  is  now  in  this  city 
upon  his  parole."  —  From  Williamsburg,  Virginia,  November 
20,  1778,  in  Continental  Journal  (No.  138). 

(267) 


268      HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"In  order  to  improve  and  secure  the  advantages 
gained  by  Colonel  Clark,"  added  the  Governor,  "I 
propose  to  support  him  with  a  reinforcement  of  mili 
tia.  But  this  will  depend  upon  the  pleasure  of  the 
Assembly,  to  whose  consideration  the  measure  is  sub 
mitted.  The  French  inhabitants  have  manifested  great 
zeal  and  attachment  to  our  cause,  and  insist  on  the 
garrison  remaining  with  them  under  Colonel  Clark. 
This  I  am  induced  to  agree  to  because  the  safety  of 
our  frontiers  as  well  as  that  of  these  people,  demands 
a  compliance  with  the  request."* 

The  request  by  Governor  Henry  that  the  Virginia 
Assembly  authorize  him  to  support  Clark  in  the  Illi 
nois  by  a  reinforcement  "to  improve  and  secure  the 
advantages"  the  Colonel  had  gained,  followed  as  it 
was  by  their  empowering  him  with  the  advice  of  the 
Council,  forthwith  to  raise  either  by  voluntary  enlist 
ment  or  detachments  from  the  -militia,  five  hundred 
men  for  that  purpose,  induced  the  Executive  of  the 
State  at  once  to  take  steps  to  enlist  for  the  service 
five  companies  of  one  hundred  men  each  —  as  this 
plan  was  preferred  to  the  calling  out  of  militia. 

The  cheerful  news  of  Clark's  success  had  its  im 
mediate  effect  upon  the  Virginia  legislators.  They 
would  not  let  the  opportunity  slip,  of  expressing  their 
gratification  to  the  Colonel  and  his  officers  and  men 
at  the  bravery  displayed  by  them.  Thus  it  was  that, 
by  an  unanimous  vote,  the  House  of  Delegates  put 
upon  record  their  thanks  on  the  twenty-third  of  No 
vember  : 

*  Governor  Henry  to  the  Virginia  Delegates  in  Congress. 
Nov.  14,  1778.  The  letter  is  printed  in  full  in  Tyler's  Patrick 
Henry,  pp.  230,  231;  also  in  Butler's  Kentucky  (Id.  ed.),  p. 
532;  and  in  Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  200,  201. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST   ETC.       269 

"Whereas,  authentic  information  has  been  received 
that  Lieutenant  Colonel  George  Rogers  Clark,  with 
a  body  of  Virginia  militia,  has  reduced  the  British  posts 
in  the  western  part  of  this  Commonwealth,  on  the 
river  Mississippi  and  its  branches,  whereby  great  ad 
vantage  may  accrue  to  the  common  cause  of  America, 
as  well  as  to  this  Commonwealth  in  particular; 

"Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  this  House  are  justly 
due  to  the  said  Colonel  Clark  and  the  brave  officers 
and  men  under  his  command,  for  their  extraordinary 
resolution  and  perseverance  in  so  hazardous  an  enter- 
prize,  and  for  the  important  services  thereby  rendered 
their  country."* 

But  there  was  another  action  taken  by  the  legis 
lators  of  Virginia.  The  inhabitants  of  the  Illinois 
and  upon  the  Wabash  had  shown  a  proper  regard 
for  this  State,  and  had  taken  the  necessary  oath,  thereby 
becoming  citizens  of  the  Commonwealth;  and  why, 
considering  their  isolated  condition,  should  they  not 
at  once  be  accorded  to  a  county  government,  in  all  re 
spects  consonant  with  Virginia  laws,  as  had  before 
been  granted  to  Virginians,  south  of  the  Ohio? 

So  the  Virginia  General  Assembly  passed  an  act 
that  all  the  citizens  of  that  commonwealth  "who  are 
already  settled,  or  shall  hereafter  settle  on  the  western 
side  of  the  Ohio,  shall  be  included  in  a  distinct  county, 
which  shall  be  called  Illinois  county. "f  The  forming 
of  this  county  was  followed  by  the  appointment  on 
the  twelfth  of  December,  of  John  Todd,  Jr.,  a  resident 
of  Kentucky  county,  as  county  lieutenant. 

*  Butler's  Kentucky,  ed.  of  1834,  p.  396;  — ed.  of  1836, 
p.  490. 

t  Appendix,  Note  LXXIX, 


270       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Clark  was  now  promoted  to  a  full  colonelcy.*  Cap 
tain  John  Montgomery  was  made  lieutenant  colonel ; 
and  Captain  Joseph  Bowman  was  commissioned  ma 
jor:  the  first  mentioned  was  given  the  title  of  "Com 
mander-in-chief  of  the  Virginia  Troops  in  the  County 
of  Illinois."  Montgomery  was  to  recruit  the  five  com 
panies. 

Instructions  were  now  drawn  up  for  Todd,  Mont 
gomery  and  Clark.  The  first  mentioned  was  directed 
by  Governor  Henry  "to  give  particular  attention  to 
Colonel  Clark  and  his  corps,  to  whom  the  State  has 
great  obligations.  You  are  to  cooperate  with  him  on 
any  military  undertaking  when  necessary,  and  to  give 
the  military  every  aid  which  the  circumstances  of  the 
people  will  admit  of.  The  inhabitants  of  the  Illinois 
must  not  expect  settled  peace  and  safety  while  their 
and  our  enemies  have  footing  at  Detroit  and  can  inter 
cept  or  stop  the  trade  of  the  Mississippi.  If  the  Eng 
lish  have  not  the  strength  or  courage  to  come  to  war 
against  us  themselves,  their  practice  has  been  and  will 
be  to  hire  the  savages  to  commit  murders  and  depre 
dations.  Illinois  must  expect  to  pay  in  these  a  large 
price  for  her  freedom  unless  the  English  can  be  ex 
pelled  from  Detroit.  The  means  for  effecting  this 
will  not  perhaps  be  found  in  your  or  Colonel  Clark's 
power,  but  the  French  inhabiting  the  neighborhood 
of  that  place,  it  is  presumed,  may  be  brought  to  see 
it  done  with  indifference  or  perhaps  join  in  the  enter- 

*  Clark's  commission  I  have  not  found.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  of  its  having  been  issued  as  Montgomery  was  made 
lieutenant  colonel  under  him,  and  Governor  Henry  addressed 
him,  in  his  official  instructions  and  letter  (as  will  now  be 
seen),  by  his  new  title;  whereas,  previously,  he  was  officially 
designated  as  lieutenant  colonel. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       271 

prise  with  pleasure.  This  is  but  corrective.  When 
you  are  on  the  spot,  you  and  Colonel  Clark  may  dis 
cover  its  fallacy,  or  reality  if  the  former  appears.  De 
fense  only  is  to  be  the  object.  If  the  latter,  or  a 
good  prospect  of  it,  I  hope  the  Frenchmen  and  Indians 
at  your  disposal  will  show  a  zeal  for  the  affair  equal 
to  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  establishing  liberty 
and  permanent  peace. 

"One  great  good  expected  from  holding  the  Illi 
nois  is  to  overawe  the  Indians  from,  warring  on  our 
settlers  on  this  side  of  the  Ohio.  A  close  attention 
to  the  disposition,  character,  and  movements  of  the 
hostile  tribes  is  therefore  necessary  for  you.  The 
forces  [of  Clark]  and  militia  at  Illinois,  by  being  placed 
on  the  back  of  them  may  inflict  timely  chastisement 
on  these  enemies,  whose  towns  are  an  easy  prey  in 
absence  of  their  warriors. 

"You  perceive  by  these  words  that  something  in  the 
military  line  may  be  expected  from  you.  So  far  as 
the  occasion  calls  for  the  assistance  of  the  people  com 
posing  the  militia,  it  will  be  necessary  to  cooperate 
with  the  troops  sent  from  here;  and  I  know  of  no 
better  general  direction  to  give  than  this,  that  you 
consider  yourself  at  the  head  of  the  civil  department 
and  as  such  having  the  command  of  the  militia,  who 
are  not  to  be  under  the  command  of  the  military  until 
ordered  out  by  the  civil  authority,  and  to  act  in  con 
junction  with  them." 

Colonel  Todd  was  also  given  additional  instruc 
tions,  —  such  as  seemed  necessary,  by  the  Executive, 
to  fully  organize  the  new  county. 

Upon  one  subject  of  private  concern,  the  Governor 
said;  "Mr,  Rocheblave's  wife  and  family  must  not 


272       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

suffer  for  want  of  that  property  of  which  they  were 
bereft  by  our  troops.  It  is  to  be  restored  to  them  if 
possible.  If  this  cannot  be  done  the  public  must  sup 
port  them."* 

The  instructions  issued  to  Colonel  Montgomery  by 
the  Virginia  Governor  were  in  effect  that  he  was 
"forthwith  to  put  on  foot  the  recruiting  of  men  to  re 
inforce  Colonel  Clark  at  the  Illinois  and  to  push  it 
on  with  all  possible  expedition."  As  soon  as  the  num 
ber  of  one  hundred  could  be  collected,  they  were  to 
be  sent  on  under  proper  officers.  If  the  number  should 
be  thought  too  small  to  go  in  safety,  more  were  to  be 
added  until  Montgomery  should  judge  the  number 
large  enough  to  resist  any  attacks  that  might  be  ex 
pected  from  the  Indians.  "You  will,"  said  Governor 
Henry,  "cause  the  proper  vessels  for  transporting  the 
troops  down  the  Chewkee  [Tennessee]  river  to  be 
built  and  ready  before  they  are  wanted.  Let  no  time 
be  lost  in  doing  that.  Mr.  James  Buchannan  you  must 
direct  to  lay  in  the  provisions  necessary.  You  will 
get  powder  and  flints  from  Colonel  Fleming's,  and 
lead  from  the  mines,  sufficient  for  the  use  of  the  parties 
on  their  march." 

Blank  commissions  for  the  officers  of  five  com 
panies  were  delivered  to  Montgomery,  to  be  filled  up 
as  the  numbers  of  men  they  should  recruit  would 
entitle  them  as  to  date  and  rank.  If  any  officer  who 
should  be  entrusted  to  recruit  should  fail  to  enlist  and 
produce  his  quota  in  a  reasonable  time,  such  as  the 
exigence  and  pressing  necessity  to  relieve  and  secure 
the  Illinois  country  required,  —  in  that  case  the  offi- 

*  The  instructions  given  to  Todd  by  Governor  Henry,  are 
printed  in  full  from  the  original,  in  Mason's  Early  Chicago 
and  Illinois,  pp.  289-294, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       273 

cer  so  failing  was  to  give  up  the  men  he  had  enlisted 
together  with  his  recruiting  instructions  to  the  Colonel 
or  such  other  person  as  Montgomery  might  appoint 
to  succeed  him;  and  if  the  person  to  succeed  the  first 
one  should  also  fail,  another  was  to  be  named,  and 
so  on  until  every  quota  was  filled,  or  so  nearly  filled 
as  to  be  fit  to  march.  "You  are,"  said  Governor  Henry 
to  the  Colonel,  "to  take  especial  care  to  appoint  men 
proper  to  be  officers ;  and  as  this  matter,  from  nec 
essity  of  the  case,  is  entrusted  to  you,  an  improper 
appointment  will  reflect  great  dishonor  upon  you." 

As  soon  as  Colonel  Montgomery  succeeded 
sufficiently  in  the  recruiting  business  to  justify  it,  he 
was  instructed  that  he  was  to  go  to  the  Illinois  and 
join  Colonel  Clark.  The  Virginia  Governor  urged 
the  utmost  dispatch.  "Our  party,"  said  he,  "at  Illi 
nois  may  be  lost,  together  with  the  present  favorable 
disposition  of  the  French  and  Indians  there,  unless 
every  moment  is  improved  for  their  preservation ;  and 
no  future  opportunity,  if  the  present  is  lost,  can 
ever  be  expected  so  favorable  to  the  interest  of  the 
Commonwealth.  I  therefore  urge  it  on  you  to  exert 
yourself  to  the  utmost  to  lose  not  a  moment  to  forward 
the  great  work  you  have  in  hand  and  to  conquer  every 
difficulty  in  your  way  arising  from  an  inclement  sea 
son,  great  distances,  wants  of  many  necessaries,  oppo 
sition  from  enemies,  and  others  I  cannot  enumerate 
but  must  confide  in  your  virtue  to  guard  against  and 
surmount." 

Captain  Isaac  Shelby  was  desired  by  Governor 
Henry  to  prepare  the  boats ;  but  if  he  could  not  do  it, 
other  persons  were  to  be  engaged.  Montgomery  was 
to  receive  ten  thousand  pounds  cash  for  Colonel  Clark's 

18 


274       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

corps ;  which  were  to  be  delivered  to  him,  except  two 
hundred  pounds  for  Captain  Shelby  with  which  to 
build  the  boats  and  for  what  other  incidental  expenses 
might  happen  necessarily  on  the  way  out.* 

On  the  same  day  of  the  issuing  of  the  instructions 
to  Colonel  Montgomery,  others  were  signed  to  be  sent 
to  Colonel  Clark : 

"You  are  to  retain,"  said  the  Governor,  "the  com 
mand  of  the  troops  now  at  the  several  posts  in  the 
county  of  Illinois  and  [which  posts,  with  those]  on 
the  Wabash  .  .  .  fall  within  the  limits  of  the 
county  now  erected  and  called  'Illinois  County/  — 
which  troops  marched  out  with  and  have  been  em 
bodied  by  you.  You  are  also  to  take  the  command  of 
five  other  companies  raised  under  the  act  of  Assembly 
which  I  send  herewith,  and  which  if  completed,  as  I 
hope  they  will  be  speedily,  will  have  orders  to  join 
you  without  loss  of  time,  and  are  likewise  to  be  under 
your  command.  With  your  whole  force,  you  are  to 
protect  the  inhabitants  of  the  county  [of  Illinois],  and, 
as  occasion  may  serve,  annoy  the  enemy." 

It  was  thought  by  the  Virginia  Executive  that  by 
the  adoption  of  proper  measures  on  part  of  Clark,  the 
Indian  nations  might  be  overawed  and  inclined  to 
peace  with  the  Americans;  or,  if  that  could  not  be 
effected,  that  such  of  them  as  send  out  parties  towards 
the  Virginia  frontiers  on  the  east  and  south  of  the 
Ohio,  might  be  chastised  by  detachments  sent  from 
the  Illinois.  For  this  purpose,  he  thought  it  would 
behoove  the  Colonel  to  watch  their  motions,  and  to 
consider  that  one  great  advantage  expected  from  the 

*  Gov.  Henry  to  Lieut.  Col.  John  Montgomery,  Dec.  12, 
1778.  —  Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  216-218. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       275 

American  commander  at  Kaskaskia  was  to  prevent  the 
Indians  from  attacking  the  exposed  settlements  of  the 
Virginias.  In  order  the  more  effectually  to  prevent 
this,  Clark  was  authorized  to  establish  such  forts  in 
different  parts  of  the  country  as  he  might  judge  best 
for  his  troops  to  occupy. 

"I  consider  your  further  success,"  continued  Henry, 
in  further  instructing  Clark,  "as  depending  upon  the 
good  will  and  friendship  of  the  Frenchmen  and  Indians 
who  inhabit  your  part  of  the  Commonwealth  [of  Vir 
ginia].  With  their  concurrence,  great  things  may 
be  accomplished.  But  their  animosity  will  spoil  the 
fair  prospects  which  your  past  success  have  opened. 
You  will  therefore  spare  no  pains  to  conciliate  the 
affections  of  the  French  and  Indians.  Let  them  see 
and  feel  the  advantages  of  being  fellow  citizens  and 
freemen.  Guard  most  carefully  against  every  in 
fringement  of  their  property,  particularly  with  re 
spect  to  land,  as  our  enemies  have  alarmed  them  as  to 
that.  Strict  and  even  severe  discipline  with  your 
soldiers  may  be  essential  to  preserve  from  injury  those 
whom  they  were  sent  to  protect  and  conciliate.  This 
is  a  great  and  capital  matter,  and  I  confide  [in  you] 
that  you  will  never  lose  sight  of  it,  or  suffer  your 
'troops  to  injure  any  person  without  feeling  the  pun 
ishment  due  to  the  offence.  The  honor  and  interest 
of  the  State  are  deeply  concerned  in  this,  and  the  at 
tachment  of  the  French  and  Indians  depends  upon  a 
due  observance  of  it." 

Governor  Henry  would  send  Clark  copies  of  the 
act  of  Government  and  Bill  of  Rights,  together  with 
the  French  Alliance.  These  would  serve  to  show  as 
the  Virginia  Executive  thought,  the  new  friends  in 


276       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

the  Illinois  the  ground,  upon  which  they  were  to  stand, 
and  the  support  to  be  expected  from  France.  Equal 
liberty  and  happiness  were  the  objects,  to  a  partici 
pation  of  which,  the  Americans  invited  them.  "Upon 
a  fair  presumption,"  said  the  Governor,  "that  the  peo 
ple  about  Detroit  have  similar  inclinations  with  those 
at  the  Illinois  and  [upon  the]  Wabash,  I  think  it  pos 
sible  that  they  may  be  brought  to  expel  their  British 
masters  and  become  fellow  citizens  of  a  free  state. 
I  recommend  this  to  your  serious  consideration,  and 
to  consult  with  some  confidential  persons  on  the  sub 
ject.  Perhaps  Mr.  Gibault,  the  priest  (to  whom  this 
country  owes  many  thanks  for  his  zeal  and  services), 
may  promote  this  affair.  But  I  refer  it  to  you  to  select 
the  proper  persons  to  advise  with,  and  to  act  as  occa 
sion  offers.  But  you  are  to  push  at  any  favorable  oc 
currences  which  fortune  may  present  to  you ;  for  our 
peace  and  safety  are  not  secure  while  the  enemy  are 
so  near  as  Detroit." 

It  was  the  desire  of  Governor  Henry  that  Clark 
should  testify  to  all  the  subjects  of  Spain  upon  every 
occasion,  the  high  regard  and  sincere  friendship  of 
Virginia  towards  them.  He  hoped  it  would  soon  be 
manifest  that  mutual  advantages  would  be  derived  from 
the  neighborhood  of  the  Virginias  and  the  subjects  of 
his  Catholic  Majesty. 

Henry  did  not  fail  to  impress  upon  Clark  the  fact 
his  situation  was  critical:  "Far  detached  from  the 
body  of  your  country,  placed  among  French,  Span 
iards,  and  Indian  nations,  strangers  to  our  people, 
anxiously  watching  your  actions  and  behavior,  and 
ready  to  receive  impressions  favorable  or  not  so, 
of  our  Commonwealth  and  its  government,  which  im- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       277 

pressions  will  be  hard  to  remove  and  will  produce 
lasting  good  or  ill  effects  to  your  country.  These 
considerations  will  make  you  cautious  and  circumspect. 
I  feel  the  delicacy  and  difficulty  of  your  situation,  but 
I  doubt  not  your  virtue  will  accomplish  the  arduous 
work  with  honor  to  yourself  and  advantage  to  the 
Commonwealth.  The  advice  and  assistance  of  discreet 
good  men  will  be  highly  necessary ;  for,  at  the  dis 
tance  of  your  county,  I  cannot  be  consulted.  General 
discretionary  powers,  therefore,  are  given  you  to  act 
for  the  best  in  all  cases  where  these  instructions  are 
silent  and  the  law  has  made  no  provision." 

The  Virginia  Executive  called  the  particular  atten 
tion  of  the  Colonel  to  Mrs.  Rocheblave  and  her  chil 
dren,  that  he  should  not  suffer  them  to  want  for  any 
thing.  He  desired  that  Mr.  Rocheblave's  property, 
which  was  taken,  be  restored  to  his  lady,  so  far  as 
it  could  be  done.  "You  have,"  he  said,  "the  sum  of 
sixty  pounds  sent  for  her  use,  in  case  you  cannot  find 
her  husband's  effects  to  restore ;"  none,  however,  could 
afterward  be  found ;  and  the  help  she  received  from  the 
State  seems  to  have  proved  of  little  consequence  to  her, 
for  in  less  than  a  year  and  a  half  thereafter,  she  wrote 
that  she  had  not  "even"  the  necessities  of  life."* 

Prudence,  the  Governor  declared,  required  that 
provisions  should  be  laid  in  to  subsist  the  troops  under 
Clark's  command  and  those  expected  to  arrive  to  re 
inforce  him.  Colonel  John  Bowman,  County  Lieuten 
ant  of  Kentucky  County,  had  contracted  to  deliver 
thirty-five  thousand  pounds  bear  bacon  at  his  county; 

*  Letter  of  "Marie  Michel  de  Rocheblave,"  written  at 
Kaskaskia  March  27,  1780 :  from  the  Haldimand  MSS. 


278       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

but  bread  must  be  obtained  in  Illinois.  Clark  was  to 
provide  it,  if  possible,  before  the  arrival  of  the  troops 
or  the  necessity  to  purchase  it  became  generally  known, 
as  perhaps  advantages  might  be  taken  to  raise  the 
price.  The  Colonel  was  enjoined  also  to  lay  up  a 
good  stock  of  powder  and  lead. 

The  American  commander  was  informed  by  the 
Governor  that  there  was  a  cargo  of  goods  at  a  Spanish 
post  near  him  belonging  either  to  the  United  States  or 
Virginia.  Rather  than  let  his  troops  be  naked,  he  could 
take  a  supply  for  them  out  of  this  cargo ;  but  this  was 
not  to  be  done  but  in  case  of  absolute  necessity.  An 
exact  account  must  be  kept  of  what  might  be  used, 
which  account  should  be  sent  to  Governor  Henry. 
Clark  was  likewise  told  that  in  his  negotiations  or 
treating  with  the  Indians  he  would  be  assisted  by 
Todd.  He  was  enjoined  to  let  the  treaties  be  confined 
to  the  subject  of  amity  and  peace  with  Americans; 
he  should  not  touch  the  subject  of  lands.  He  might 
accept  of  any  services  the  savages  might  offer  for 
expelling  the  English  from  Detroit  or  elsewhere.  In 
the  event  presents  were  found  necessary  to  give  the 
Indians,  he  should  make  them  as  sparingly  as  possible, 
letting  them  know  the  Virginia  stock  of  goods  was 
then  small,  but  by  means  of  the  trade  with  the  French 
and  other  nations,  it  was  expected  there  would  be 
plenty  of  goods  before  long. 

"Lieutenant  Colonel  Montgomery"  were  the  con 
cluding  words  of  Governor  Henry's  instructions,  "will 
convey  to  you  ten  thousand  pounds  for  payment  of 
the  troops,  and  for  other  matters  requiring  money. 
In  the  distribution  of  the  money,  you  will  be  careful 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      279 

to  keep  exact  accounts  from  time  to  time,  and  take 
security  where  it  is  proper."* 

By  a  letter  written  by  the  Governor  of  Virginia 
on  the  first  day  of  the  year  1779,  Colonel  Clark  was 
informed  that  the  Virginia  Assembly  had  directed  his 
battalion  to  be  completed,  one  hundred  men  to  be 
stationed  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  under  Major  Slaugh 
ter  ;  and  that  one  only  of  the  additional  battalions  was 
to  be  filled.  "Major  Slaughter's  men,"  said  Henry, 
"are  raised  and  will  march  in  a  few  days."  The 
returns  which  had  been  made  to  the  Governor  were  not 
sufficient  for  him  to  state  confidently  whether  men 
enough  had  been  raised  to  make  up  the  additional 
battalion,  but  he  supposed  there  were  nearly  enough. 
This  battalion  would  march  early  in  the  spring  as  the 
weather  would  admit. 

The  Governor  said  to  Clark  that  he  knew  of  but 
two  principal  objects  to  engage  his  attention  for  his 
next  summer's  operations :  ( i )  an  expedition  against 
Detroit;  or,  (2)  against  those  tribes  of  Indians  be 
tween  the  Ohio  and  Illinois  rivers,  who  had  harrassed 
the  Virginians  constantly  and  whom  experience  had 
shown  to  be  incapable  of  reconciliation. 

"Removed  at  such  a  distance  as  we  are,"  are  the 
concluding  words  of  Henry,  "and  so  imperfectly  in 
formed,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  prescribe  to  you. 
The  defences  at  Detroit  seem  too  great  for  small  arms 
alone ;  and  if  that  nest  was  destroyed,  the  English 
still  have  a  tolerable  channel  of  communication  with 
the  Northern  Indians,  by  going  from  Montreal  up 
the  Ottawa  river;  on  the  other  hand,  the  Shawanese, 

*Gov.  Henry  to  Col.  G.  R.  Clark  (Instructions),  Dec. 
12,  1778  — Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  209-212. 


280       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Mingoes,  Munsies,  and  the  nearer  Wyandots  are  trou 
blesome  thorns  in  our  sides.  However,  we  must  leave 
it  to  yourself  to  decide  on  the  object  of  the  campaign; 
if  against  the  Indians,  the  end  proposed  should  be  their 
extermination,  or  their  removal  beyond  the  lakes  or 
Illinois  river.  The  same  world  will  scarcely  do  for 
them  and  us.  I  suppose  it  will  be  best  for  the  new 
battalion  to  act  with  you  all  the  summer,  aided  by 
a  considerable  part  of  Slaughter's  men ;  and,  in  the 
fall,  to  fortify  the  ports  we  propose  to  take  [to  es 
tablish?]  on  the  Ohio,  and  remain  in  them  during  the 
succeeding  winter.  The  posts  which  have  been  thought 
of  are,  the  mouth  of  Fishing  or  Little  Kenawha,  Great 
Kenawha,  Scioto,  Great  Salt  Lick,  and  Kentucky 
[river].  There  being  posts  already  at  Pittsburgh, 
the  mouth  of  Wheeling  and  the  Falls  of  Ohio,  these 
intermediate  ones  will  form  a  chain  from  Pittsburgh 
to  the  Falls.  I  have  then  only  to  wish  that  your  post 
[at  Kaskaskia]  was  at  the  mouth  of  Ohio,  which  would 
complete  the  line."* 

At  the  close  of  summer,  Colonel  Clark's  conduct 
of  public  affairs  had  been  so  judicious  that,  so  far  as 
appearances  were  concerned,  American  rule  seemed 
to  be  pretty  firmly  established  not  only  in  the  Illinois 

*  Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  218,  219.  That  the 
Governor  should  have  overlooked  the  fact  of  there  being  a 
post  already  established  at  the  mouth  of  the  Great  Kanawha 
is  strange  indeed.  To  establish  a  post  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Ohio,  had  been,  for  a  considerable  time,  earnestly  considered 
by  Henry;  and  he  had  gone  so  far  as  to  make  certain  proposi 
tions  to  the  Spaniards  suggesting  if  they  would  bring  goods 
there  in  their  own  vessels  one  would  be  located  at  that  point. 
( See  Henry  to  Richard  Henry  Lee,  Nov.  10,  1777.  —  Henry's 
Patrick  Henry,  vol.  Ill,  p.  115.)  - 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       281 

but  upon  the  Wabash.  He  had  let  slip  no  opportunity 
in  cultivating,  in  every  quarter  where  there  was  the 
least  appearance  of  future  advantage,  the  growing 
interest  of  his  country.  His  success  had  been  as  great 
as  he  had  any  good  reason  to  expect.  There  was 
tranquility  in  the  village  of  the  white  people,  and 
among  the  savage  tribes  for  many  miles  northward 
and  eastward.  It  was  this  calm  that  gave  him  leisure 
to  reflect  seriously  upon  the  conquest  he  had  made  — 
as  perfect,  it  would  seem,  as  it  had  been  bloodless ; 
but  it  was  the  calm  before  the  storm.  Patrick  Henry's 
words  to  the  Colonel  —  "I  must  observe  to  you  that 
your  situation  is  critical"  —  were  almost  prophetic. 

The  Colonel,  after  due  consideration,  became  ap 
prehensive  that  the  British  at  Detroit,  finding  it  hard 
to  regain  their  lost  interest  among  the  savages,  would 
make  a  descent  on  the  Illinois^  And  the  more  readily 
would  they  undertake  this  should  they  learn  with 
what  a  small  force  possession  of  the  country  was  re 
tained.  Every  precaution,  then,  was  taken  to  keep 
the  inhabitants  in  ignorance  of  the  commander's  real 
strength.  Naturally,  under  such  circumstances,  there 
would  be  an  exaggeration ;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  army  was  estimated,  generally,  at  double  its  actual 
number.  As  it  was  of  the  utmost  importance  early  to 
get  particulars,  should  an  undertaking  be  resolved  upon 
by  the  enemy,  spies  were  sent  forward  to  watch  any 
movement  of  an  aggresive  nature.  They  soon  reported 
that  Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton  was  exerting  him 
self  to  engage  the  savages  to  assist  him  in  retaking 
the  places  which  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  Clark ; 
and  the  latter  wrote  the  Governor  of  Virginia  con 
cerning  it:  "General  Hamilton  of  Detroit,"  said  the" 


282       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Colonel,  "has  of  late  been  at  great  pains  and  expense 
to  get  a  body  of  Indians  to  retake  the  Illinois;  but 
above  half  the  Indians  that  he  had  at  his  command  has 
treated  with  me,  and  I  believe  the  rest  very  willing 
to  be  quiet,  except  those  towards  Fort  Pitt.  In  short, 
his  officers  among  them  have  had  success,  as  I  often 
hear  from  them,  having  spies  in  the  same  towns.  I 
think  I  shall  keep  his  Excellency  out  of  it  [the  Illinois] 
this  year;  as  for  the  next,  you  are  the  best  judge."* 

Clark,  it  will  be  seen,  felt  too  much  at  his  ease. 
He  was  sure  the  favorable  impression  made  on  the 
Indians  of  the  country  of  the  lakes  by  the  councils 
which  had  been  held  in  the  Illinois,  and  his  sending 
messages  of  good  will  to  many  of  those  he  had  not 
seen,  added  to  the  influence  of  the  French  over  all  the 
nations,  would  make  it  difficult  for  the  Lieutenant 
Governor  to  induce  many  to  march  under  his  com 
mand  ;  besides  expectations  of  reinforcements  undoubt 
edly  flattered  the  Colonel  that,  in  any  event,  no  great 
danger  need  be  apprehended. f 

Additional  news  was  now  brought  to  Clark. 
Hamilton  was,  in  truth,  on  the  march  with  a  consider- 

*  Clark  to  Patrick  Henry,  Governor  of  Virginia,  Sept.  16, 
1778.  This  letter  is  published  in  full  in  Henry's  Patrick 
Henry,  vol.  Ill,  p.  194. 

f  Patrick  Henry  to  Congressional  Delegates  of  Virginia, 
Nov.  14,  1778.  The  following  are  the  words  of  Governor 
Henry  in  relating  what  Clark  had  written  him : 

"The  governor  of  that  place  [Detroit],  M.  Hamilton,  was 
exerting  himself  to  engage  the  savages  to  assist  him  in  retak 
ing  the  places  that  had  fallen  into  our  hands ;  but  the  favor 
able  impression  made  on  the  Indians  in  general  in  that  quarter, 
the  influence  of  the  French  on  them,  and  the  reinforcement  of 
militia  Colonel  Clark  expected,  flattered  him  that  there  was 
little  danger  to  be  apprehended." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       283 

able  party,  taking  his  route  up  the  Maumee  river. 
Surely,  therefore,  the  Illinois  must  be  his  aim.  But, 
in  a  few  days  the  Colonel  received  certain  intelligence 
that  General  Mclntosh,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  was 
the  successor  of  Brigadier  General  Hand  in  command 
of  the  Western  Department,  had  left  Fort  Pitt  for 
Detroit  with  a  strong  force. 

This  news  was  sent  the  Colonel  by  way  of  the 
Ohio  river  and  the  Mississippi;  and  it  reached  him  in 
terms  implying  that  it  was  his  (Mclntosh's)  inten 
tion  not  to  stop  short  of  Detroit.  The  whole  matter 
was,  therefore,  as  the  American  commander  thought, 
easily  to  be  understood  —  Hamilton  was  marching 
against  Mclntosh. 

It  was  the  decided  opinion  entertained  by  Clark  that 
Detroit  could  easily  be  taken :  "knowing  the  weakness 
of  the  fortification  of  that  post  at  that  time,  their 
numbers,  etc.,  I  made  no  doubt  of  it  being  shortly  in 
our  possession  and  that  Governor  Hamilton,  sensible 
that  there  was  no  probability  of  his  being  able  suc 
cessfully  to  defend  the  fort,  had  marched  with  his 
whole  force  to  encourage  the  Indians  to  harrass  the 
General  [Mclntosh]  on  his  way  as  the  only  probable 
plan  to  stop  him;  little  thinking  that  he  had  returned, 
and  that  Mr.  Hamilton  had  the  same  design  on  me  that 
I  supposed  he  had  on  General  Mclntosh." 

"It  being  near  Christmas,"  are  the  further  words 
of  Clark,  "we  feasted  ourselves  with  the  hopes  of 
immediately  hearing  from  Detroit,  and  began  to  think 
that  we  had  been  neglected  in  an  express  not  being 
sent  with  the  important  news  of  its  being  ours."* 

*  Clark  to  Mason.  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  51. 


284       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

But  the  American  commander  finally  got  some 
light.  A  young  man  at  Cahokia  was  detected  in  hold 
ing  a  correspondence  with  "Governor  Hamilton's 
party"  and  in  sending  intelligence  to  the  enemy,  and 
was  "punished  accordingly."*  In  the  investigation,  it 
was  learned  that  General  Mclntosh  had  returned  from 
the  Tuscarawas  and  that  Hamilton  was  marching 
really  against  the  Illinois,  although  as  to  the  latter, 
there  was  not  sufficient  evidence  "to  reduce  it  to  a 
certainty;"  but.  if  true,  it  was  clear  to  the  mind  of 
Clark  that  the  Lieutenant  Governor  would  make  his 
first  strike  at  Kaskaskia  —  the  Colonel's  headquarters 
and  where  the  strongest  garrison  was. 

Spies  were  kept  on  all  the  roads  but  to  no  purpose  :f 
some  were  captured;  others  returned  with  no  news. 
Cold  weather  setting  in,  Clark  was  at  a  loss  what 
to  do.  It  was  the  opinion  of  many  of  his  men  that 
Hamilton  had  quit  his  design,  going  no  farther  than 
the  head  of  the  Maumee.  As  the  Colonel  could  get 
no  intelligence  whatever  from  Vincennes,  he  gave  him 
self  the  benefit  of  all  doubts  as  to  the  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  being  there,  —  imagining  that,  perhaps,  Captain 
Helm  had  not  been  able  to  send  him  an  express  on 
account  of  high  waters.  In  this  situation  of  uncer 
tainty,  he  remained  for  a  considerable  time. 

It  was  the  intention  of  the  American  commander 
in  the  event  of  the  appearance  of  the  enemy  to  withdraw 
the  garrison  from  Cahokia.  But,  as  he  was  anxious 
to  have  a  conference  with  the  principal  inhabitants  of 
that  place,  whom  he  knew  to  be  zealous  in  his  coun- 

*  Id.  p.  52.    What  punishment  was  meted  out  to  the  young 
man,  Clark  does  not  say.     He  was  probably  hung, 
t  Clark  to  Mason  just  cited. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      285 


try's  cause,  to  fix  on  certain  plans  for  the  conduct 
of  the  people  there  in  the  event  of  possession  being 
taken  by  the  English,  he  set  out  for  that  village  with 
the  intention  however  of  staying  but  a  few  days. 

With  a  guard  of  not  more  than  seven  men,  accom 
panied  by  "a  few  gentlemen  in  chairs"  —  that  is,  in 
wooden  carts,  one  of  which,  "swamped"  on  the  way  — 
Clark  —  after  nearly  an  hour's  detention  —  proceeded 
on  his  journey,  reaching  Prairie  du  Rocher,  "about 
twelve  miles  above  Kaskaskia,"  with  safety,  where,  in 
the  evening,  the  party  were  entertained  by  the  good 
people  of  the  place  with  a  dance,  gotten  up  in  honor 
of  their  arrival.  "We  spent,"  says  the  Colonel,  "the 
fore  part  of  the  night  very  agreeably,  but  about  12 
o'clock  there  was  a  very  sudden  change."* 

The  cause  for  the  interruption  was  this:  An  ex 
press  arrived  from  Kaskaskia,  with  the  information 
that  Hamilton  from  Detroit  was  within  three  miles 
of  the  place  first  mentioned  with  eight  hundred  men 
and  was  determined  to  attack  the  fort  there  that  night 
—  indeed,  before  the  news  could  possibly  reach  the 
American  commander.  There  was  at  once  among 
that  small  assembly  the  greatest  confusion  —  "every 
person,"  says  the  Colonel,  "having  their  eyes  on  me, 
as  if  my  word  was  to  determine  their  good  or  evil 
fate."f  It  required  but  a  moment  for  the  commander 

*  Clark  to  Mason.  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
pp.  53,  54. 

Roosevelt  (The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  II,  pp.  67,  68) 
speaks  of  the  dance  in  such  a  manner  as  to  convey  the  idea 
that  the  people  "of  the  little  village  of  La  Prairie  du  Rocher" 
had  gotten  it  up  for  their  own  entertainment ;  but  this  is  error. 

t  Clark  to  Mason.  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p. 
54.  It  is  doubtful  whether  the  report  actually  put  the  number 


286       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

to  form  his  resolution  to  attempt  at  once  to  regain 
the  fort  if  possible  before  it  should  be  attacked  by  the 
enemy;  or,  failing  in  that,  to  endeavor  to  get  through 
the  lines  of  the  besiegers  by  stratagem.  He  communi 
cated  his  resolution  to  two  of  his  officers  who  had 
accompanied  him ;  it  met  their  approval ;  and  their 
horses  were  ordered  saddled. 

''Those  of  the  company,"  says  Clark  "that  had  re 
covered  from  their  surprise  so  far  as  to  enable  them 
to  speak,  begged  of  me  not  to  attempt  to  return ;  that 
the  town  was  certainly  in  possession  of  the  enemy  and 
the  fort  warmly  attacked.  Some  proposed  conveying 
me  to  the  Spanish  shore ;  —  some  one  thing  and  some 
another.'1*  But  the  Colonel  refused  to  listen  to  their 
various  propositions  for  his  safety ;  insisting  at  the 
same  time  that  the  dance  should  be  continued  until 
the  horses  were  ready;  and,  to  inspire  them  with  as 
much  courage  as  possible  he  tried  to  appear  as  uncon 
cerned  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  After  dropping  a 
line  to  Captain  Bowman  at  Cahokia,  ordering  him  to 
return  with  his  force  at  once  to  Kaskaskia,f  Clark 

at  eight  hundred  as  Clark  declares.  It  is  not  improbable, 
when  he  wrote  his  letter  to  Mason,  having  that  number  in  his 
mind  as  the  force  under  Hamilton  when  the  latter  entered 
Vincennes,  he  gave  it  as  the  number  reported. 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  in  the  work  last  cited,  p.  55. 

t  In  his  letter  to  Mason  of  Nov.  19,  1779,  Clark  does  not 
mention  what  word  he  sent  to  Bowman ;  but  in  a  letter  to  the 
Governor  of  Virginia  written  on  the  29th  of  April  previous, 
he  explains  that  it  was  an  order  to  evacuate  the  fort  at  Ca 
hokia.  (See  Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222  n,  where  the 
entire  letter  is  printed.  The  original  is  the  property  of  the 
United  States  and  is  in  the  archives  of  the  Department  of 
State.)  This  letter  is  frequently  cited  hereafter;  for,  al 
though  not  written  for  some  months  after  the  events  took 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      287 

set  out  on  his  return  to  his  headquarters,  making  the 
journey,  it  may  be  presumed,  in  much  less  time  than 
on  his  way  out.  On  his  arrival,  he  found,  instead  of 
an  enemy  in  possession  of  the  fort  or  besieging  it, 
everything  to  all  appearances  as  calm  as  when  he  left. 

Clark  and  his  men  before  starting  on  their  return 
from  Prairie  du  Rocher  had  provided  themselves  with 
blankets,  in  which,  in  case  the  fort,  on  their  arrival, 
was  surrounded  by  the  enemy,  each  one  was  to  wrap 
himself,  fall  in  with  the  besiegers  until  an  opportunity 
offered  of  getting  near  enough  to  the  fortification  to 
give  the  proper  signals,  when  he  would  be  promptly 
admitted  inside.* 

It  was  the  general  impression  in  the  fort  that,  as 
the  weather  was  inclement,  the  attack  would  not  take 
place  until  it  cleared  up,  none  doubting  the  presence 
of  the  enemy  in  the  immediate  vicinity.  But  Clark, 
from  several  circumstances,  was  led  to  believe  that 
the  reason  for  the  postponement  of  hostilities  was  due 
to  their  desire  to  give  the  garrison  time  to  escape ;  how 
ever,  he  determined  if  that  was  their  wish,  they  should 
be  disappointed ;  so  he  lost  no  time  in  putting  every 
thing  in  as  good  order  as  possible. 

Now,  the  good  Father  Gibault  was  inside  the  fort 
at  the  time  and  it  would  seem  was  "in  the  greatest 
consternation,"  but  he  was  determined  to  act  agree 
able  to  the  commander's  instructions.  He  was,  of  all 
those  in  Kaskaskia,  "the  most  afraid  of  Mr.  Hamilton," 

place,  it  refers  back  to  them,  for  certain  reasons  hereafter 
explained.  Its  statements  are  generally  to  be  relied  upon. 

*  This,  certainly,  was  a  novel  and,  doubtless,  an  original 
plan  for  cutting  through  a  besieging  force.  Had  there  been 
an  occasion  for  testing  its  efficacy,  failure  probably  would  have 
been  the  result. 


288       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

and  for  good  reason.  The  interest  manifested  by  him 
in  temporal  affairs  both  at  Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes, 
he  well  knew  "Mr.  Hamilton"  would  soon  be  informed 
of,  if  he  had  not  already  obtained  information  con 
cerning  it;  and  he  had  good  reason  to  fear  the  worst 
should  he  fall  into  the  Lieutenant  Governor's  power.* 

Hamilton  seems  to  have  treasured  up  an  implac 
able  hatred  of  the  priest.  More  than  two  years  after 
learning  how  much  the  American  commander  had 
been  indebted  to  him  for  the  change  of  affairs  at  Vin 
cennes,  he  gave  vent  in  unmeasured  terms  to  his  ill- 
feeling  against  him:  "He  [Gibault]  had  been,"  he 
said,  "an  active  agent  for  the  rebels,  and  whose  vicious 
and  immoral  conduct  was  sufficient  to  do  infinite  mis 
chief  in  a  country  where  ignorance  and  bigotry  give 
full  scope  to  the  depravity  of  a  licentious  ecclesiastic. 
This  wretch  it  was  who  absolved  the  French  inhabi 
tants  from  their  allegiance  to  the  King  of  Great  Bri 
tain.  To  enumerate  the  vices  of  the  inhabitants  would 
be  to  give  a  long  catalogue;  but  to  assert  that  they 
are  not  in  possession  of  a  single  virtue  is  no  more 
than  truth  and  justice  require;  still,  the  most  eminently 
vicious  and  scandalous  was  the  Rev.  Mons'r  Gibault. "f 

In  conferring  with  Clark,  the  worthy  priest  felt 
sure  the  fort  would  be  taken  unless  reinforced  by  the 
garrison  from  Cahokia,  not  knowing  that  Clark  had 
previously  written  Captain  Bowman  to  join  him  at 
once  from  that  place.  The  Colonel  thought  best  to 
relieve  the  priest  of  his  anxiety  by  pretending  he 
wanted  him  to  go  to  the  Spanish  side  of  the  Mississippi 

*  Clark  to  Mason.  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp. 
55,  56. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       289 

with  public  papers  and  money.  "The  proposition/' 
says  Clark,  "pleased  him  well;  he  immediately  started 
and  getting  into  an  island,  he  was  obliged  to  encamp 
there  three  days,  in  the  most  obscure  part  with  only  a 
servant  to  attend  him,  the  ice  passing  so  thick  down 
the  Mississippi." 

During  the  hours  which  passed  after  the  return 
of  the  commander,  but  before  the  morning  of  the  next 
day,  he  had  sufficient  time  to  carefully  reflect  upon 
what  he  deemed  the  serious  condition  of  affairs.  The 
inhabitants  had  always  appeared  to  be  attached  to  the 
Americans;  at  the  same  time  he  fully  realized  that 
he  would  soon  have  an  unmistakable  demonstration 
from  them  as  to  their  feeling  toward  him,  which  at  first 
seemed  to  be  one  of  friendship ;  as  several  of  the  young 
men  of  the  place,  soon  after  the  alarm  had  been  given, 
turned  into  the  fort  to  help  defend  it.  But  he  was 
sensible,  at  the  same  time,  that,  in  the  event  they  took 
up  arms  to  defend  the  town,  the  whole  would  probably 
be  lost,  as  he  would  be  obliged  to  give  the  enemy  bat 
tle  in  the  commons ;  he  thought,  therefore,  it  would 
be  best,  could  it  be  brought  about,  that  such  as  had 
no  families  should  reinforce  the  garrison,  while  those 
with  families  should  remain  neutral. 

The  Colonel  concluded  to  burn  all  the  houses  near 
the  fort,  and  when  the  attack  was  made,  "to  sell  it  as 
dearly  as  possible,"  as  there  was  no  probability  of 
escaping  the  enemy  who,  he  had  no  doubt,  were  about 
ready  to  commence  the  siege,  although  not  a  single 
white  man  or  Indian  had,  as  yet,  made  his  appearance 
in  a  threatening  manner  near  the  village.  The  only 
probable  chance  of  safety  for  the  garrison  depended, 

19 


290       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

as  it  seemed  to  Clark,  on  the  prompt  arrival  of  Captain 
Bowman  from  Cahokia,  with  his  company,  for  no  re 
inforcements  were  expected  from  the  eastward,  and, 
with  this  force  added  to  those  of  his  garrison  he  might 
possibly. defend  himself  until  "Mr.  Hamilton's  Indians" 
and  white  men  got  tired  and  returned;  which,  he 
judged,  would  be  in  four  or  five  weeks,  for  the  great 
est  part  of  them,  should  they  not  meet  with  the  success 
they  had  expected. 

In  the  morning,  the  first  thing  the  American  com 
mander  did  was,  to  assemble  all  the  inhabitants  in  the 
fort  in  order  to  know  what  their  resolution  was ;  for 
he  had  learned  of  their  counselling  together  during 
the  night  as  to  what  course  ought,  under  the  circum 
stances,  to  be  pursued  by  them.  He  then  promptly 
asked  them  whether  they  would  endeavor  to  defend 
their  village  or  not.  If  they  would  act  on  the  defen 
sive,  he  would,  he  told  them,  quit  the  fort,  leaving 
inside  only  a  small  guard,  and  "head"  them  with  his 
troops.  He  told  them  also  that  if  the  enemy  lay  con 
cealed  until,  the  weather  broke,  he  might  probably  dis 
cover  their  camps  and  get  some  advantage  of  them. 
But  the  citizens  declined  to  act  on  one  side  or  the  other, 
which  was  really  not  displeasing  to  Clark ;  at  the  same 
time  they  protested  they  were  really  in  the  American 
interest.  Now,  all  would  have  been  well  had  they  said 
no  more ;  yet  they  not  only  suggested  that  the  Colonel's 
whole  force  joined  with  them  would  make  a  poor  show 
ing  against  so  considerable  a  party  as  the  one  which 
(as  supposed)  was  about  to  attack  them,  but  they 
hinted  that  it  was  their  wish  that  the  Americans  should 
abandon  the  place  and  take  protection  of  the  Spanish 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Mississippi ;  for  they  could  not: 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       291 

conceive  that  Clark  could  keep  possession  of  the  fort 
a  single  day,  as  the  enemy  would  immediately  set 
the  adjoining  houses  on  fire,  which  would  fire  the 
fortification  (they  not  knowing  that  the  commander 
had  already  resolved  to  burn  them  as  soon  as  the 
wind  shifted).* 

The  suggestion  made  by  the  Kaskaskians  that  Clark 
should  avail  himself  of  Spanish  protection,  and  the 
fact  that  they  had  already  discussed  the  matter  of  the 
enemy  firing  the  adjacent  houses  to  get  possession 
of  the  fort,  "with  some  other  circumstances,"  put  the 
Colonel  "in  a  most  violent  rage."  As  soon  as  he  could 
curb  his  passion  he  gave  them  a  lecture  such  as  would 
suit  "a  set  of  traitors,"  although  he  did  not  conceive 
them  all  to  be  such.  He  then  ordered  out  the  Kas 
kaskians  that  were  in  the  fort,  at  the  same  time  telling 
them  he  no  longer  thought  them  deserving  any  favor 
from  him;  that  he,  consequently,  must  conceive  them 
to  be  his  secret  enemies  and  should  treat  them  as  such. 
But  he  had  no  idea  of  carrying  out  his  threat;  it  was 
made  only  that  the  inhabitants  might  be  convinced 
of  his  firm  determination  never  to  yield  to  the  foe 
so  long  as  there  was  the  least  chance  left  for  him  and 
his  men. 

The  inhabitants  who  had  assembled  in  the  fort  now 
asked  Clark  to  issue  an  order  for  all  the  provision  in 
the  town  to  be  brought  him  immediately  as  an  earnest 
of  their  good  intentions  toward  him  and  which  in  real 
ity  convinced  him  that  as  they  saw  he  was  determined 

*  This,  it  will  be  seen,  is  additional  evidence  that  Fort 
Gage  was  in  Kaskaskia ;  although,  already  enough  has  been 
adduced,  it  is  confidently  believed,  to  convince  the  most 
skeptical. 


292       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

to  stand  his  ground  it  was  their  desire  he  should  be 
able  to  withstand  the  siege  as  long  as  possible ;  besides, 
if  such  an  order  were  issued,  it  would  be  an  excuse 
for  them  to  their  new  master,  (whom  they  expected 
every  moment),  for  furnishing  the  supplies  to  the 
Americans.  The  Colonel  told  them  he  would  have 
all  their  provisions,  and  that  he  would  then  burn  their 
town  "to  the  enemy's  hand."  He  added  that  they 
might  send  in  wrhat  they  had  if  they  chose  to  do  so. 
He  then  again  ordered  them  all  out  of  the  fort ;  and  no 
sooner  had  they  departed  than  he  had  set  fire  to  some 
out  houses,  a  proceeding  which  convinced  them  of  his 
firm  determination  to  fight  to  the  last.  "Never,"  says 
Clark,  "was  a  set  of  people  in  more  distress ;  their  town 
set  on  fire  by  those  they  wished  to  be  in  friendship 
with,  at  the  same  time  surrounded  by  the  savages, 
as  they  believed,  from  whom  they  had  little  else  but 
destruction  to  expect." 

Owing  to  the  circumstance  that  there  was  con 
siderable  snow  on  the  roofs  of  the  houses,  the  fire 
kindled  by  Clark's  orders  did  not  spread  to  any  extent. 
Meanwhile,  the  inhabitants  looked  on  without  daring 
to  say  a  word.  The  Colonel  told  them  he  intended  to 
set  fire  to  all  the  houses  that  contained  much  provision, 
for  fear,  unless  destroyed,  the  enemy  would  get  it; 
however,  they  did  not  wait  to  see  the  commander  put 
his  threat  into  execution,  but  at  once  commenced  bring 
ing  their  hoarded  supplies  to  the  fort;  and,  before 
night,  six  months'  provisions  had  been  deposited  there. 

"Not  having  received  a  scrape  of  a  pen  from  you 
for  nearly  twelve  months,"  wrote  the  Colonel  after 
ward  to  the  Governor,  "I  could  see  but  little  probability 
of  keeping  possession  of  the  country,  as  my  number  of 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       293 

men  was  too  small  to  stand  a  siege,  and  my  situation 
too  remote  to  call  for  assistance.  I  made  all  the  pre 
parations  I  possibly  could  for  the  attack,  and  was  ne 
cessitated  to  set  fire  to  some  of  the  houses  in  town,  to 
clear  them  out  of  the  way."* 

During  the  first  day  after  Clark's  return,  an  inci 
dent  occurred  which  came  very  near  having  a  tragical 
ending.  A  citizen  riding  out  of  town  got  information 
that  a  party  of  the  enemy  were  going  to  the  island  to 
capture  the  priest,  who  was  detained  there  by  the 
floating  ice.  The  man,  while  desiring  to  befriend 
Father  Gibault,  was  at  the  same  time  disposed  to  keep 
the  presence  of  the  enemy  a  secret  from  Clark ;  so,  on 
his  return  to  the  village  and  meeting  the  priest's 
brother-in-law,  he  related  the  news  to  the  latter,  beg 
ging  him  not  to  tell  the  American  commander;  but 
he  made  all  haste  to  inform  the  Colonel.  Thereupon, 
the  citizen  who  told  the  story  to  the  relative  of  Gibault 
was  arrested  and  ordered  to  be  immediately  hanged. 
Nothing,  apparently,  would  have  saved  him  had  not 
his  wife  and  seven  small-  children  been  brought  before 
Clark.  "This,"  says  the  latter,  "was  a  sight  too  mov 
ing  not  to  have  granted  them  the  life  of  their  parent," 
but  "on  terms  that  put  it  out  of  his  power  to  do  any 
damage  to  me."f 

The  following  day  Captain  Bowman  with  his  own 
company  and  one  of  volunteers  reached  Kaskaskia 

*  Clark  to  Governor  of  Virginia,  April  29th,  1779.  —  Jef 
ferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222  n. 

f  Clark  to  Mason.  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp. 
60,  61.  It  would  be  a  matter  of  no  little  interest  could  it  be 
ascertained  what  the  "terms"  were;  but  they  will  doubtless 
never  be  known. 


294       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

from  Cahokia.*  The  weather  had  cleared  away  and 
the  reinforcement  gave  Clark  strong  hopes  of  being 
able  to  defy  the  enemy ;  he  having  still  the  firm  belief 
that  a  large  force  was  in  the  vicinity  ready  to  begin  an 
attack  upon  him.  Spies  were  sent  out  in  every  direc 
tion  to  make  discoveries ;  the  commander  hoping  to  get 
such  an  advantage  as  would  enable  him,  notwithstand 
ing  the  odds  were  as  he  supposed  against  him,  to 
attack  them  in  the  environs  of  the  town.  By  this 
time,  the  inhabitants  seemed  to  change  their  minds 
and  to  manifest  a  desire  to  aid  in  defense  of  the  place. 
And  the  Colonel  was  not  slow  to  show  them  he  appre 
ciated  their  readiness  to  assist  him.  Soon  the  spies 
returned  and,  to  the  great  relief  of  all,  reported  that, 
instead  of  an  army  of  huge  dimensions  there  were  only 
about  forty  whites  and  Indians  in  the  vicinity,  and 
that  they  were  making  their  retreat  as  fast  as  possible 
to  Vincennes. 

*  Bancroft  [History  of  the  United  States  (ed.  of  1885), 
vol.  V,  p.  313]  confounds  Captain  Joseph  Bowman,  then  in 
command  of  a  company  under  Clark  with  Colonel  John  Bow 
man,  of  Kentucky.  He  says  :  "By  his  [Clark's]  orders,  Bow 
man  of  Kentucky  joined  him,  after  evacuating  the  fort  at 
Kahokia,  and  preparations  were  made  for  the  defense  of 
Kaskaskia." 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE  particulars  of  the  movement  of  the  enemy's 
small  force  of  Indians  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Wabash  to  the  vicinity  of  Kaskaskia  show  not 
a  little  daring  on  part  of  the  one  in  command.  Ham 
ilton  had  not  contemplated  sending  any  of  his  men, 
either  Indians  or  whites,  as  a  war  party  into  the  very 
heart  of  the  Illinois  settlements,  either  for  informa 
tion  or  to  capture  stragglers  belonging  to  the  army 
of  Clark.  He  was  content  with  the  knowledge  he 
had  already  of  affairs  there,  willing  to  abide  the  time 
when  the  season  would  admit  of  his  marching  on 
ward  to  the  Mississippi.  But  a  plan  of  an  Ottawa 
Indian  chief  who  had,  along  with  other  savages  and 
a  party  of  whites,  been  sent  down  the  Wabash  by 
the  Lieutenant  Governor  to  go  to  the  Tennessee  river 
to  confer  with  the  Cherokees,  as  mentioned  in  a 
previous  chapter,  was  laid,  as  before  stated,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  first  mentioned  stream,  to  go  on  an 
expedition  to  the  Illinois  to  take  some  prisoners.* 
There  went  with  the  party,  as  already  noticed,  two 
French  Canadians.  The  whole  marched  by  land,  their 
objective  point  being  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Kas 
kaskia.  After  a  very  fatiguing  march  they  reached 

*  Ante,  Chap.  XV.  Hamilton,  in  his  letter  to  Haldimand 
of  Jan.  24-28,  1779,  simply  says  that  "the  chief  ...  (an 
Ottawa)  determined  to  go  on  a  decouverte  to  Kaskaskia." 
But  in  his  letter  to  the  same,  of  July  6,  1781,  he  explains, 
as  has  been  shown,  that  the  chief,  having  remained  sometime 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Wabash  with  his  party  without  taking 
any  prisoners,  "declared  he  would  not  return  without  attempt 
ing  to  be  of  further  service;"  so  he  started  for  the  Illinois 
towns.  (295) 


296       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

the  Kaskaskia  river  and  crossed  over  at  a  point  ap 
parently  above  the  town,  where  they  secreted  them 
selves.  . 

A  few  of  the  savages  lay  concealed  near  a  small 
branch  about  three  miles  from  Kaskaskia,  and  only  a 
hundred  yards  from  the  place  where  the  "chair"  be 
longing  to  one  of  Clark's  companions  was  mired  when 
the  Colonel,  with  some  others,  was  on  his  way  to 
Cahokia  as  before  described,  and  where  the  whole  had 
been  detained  about  an  hour.  "I  believe  nothing  here 
saved  me,"  says  the  Colonel,  "but  the  instructions  they 
had  not  to  kill  me,  or  the  fear  of  being  overpowered, 
not  having  an  opportunity  to  alarm  the  main  body 
without  being  discovered  themselves."  ,The 
residue  of  the  party  was  at  this  time,  about  half  a  mile 
away — so  Clark  afterward  learned ;  and  he  subse 
quently  became  fully  persuaded  that  the  enemy's 
coming 'was  only  that  he  alone  should  be  captured: 
"Mr.  Hamilton  .  .  .  had  sent  a  party  of  forty 
savages,  headed  by  white  men  from  Vincennes  in 
order  if  possible  to  take  me  prisoner;  and  he  gave 
such  instructions  for  my  treatment  as  did  him  no 
dishonor."  And  again  he  speaks  of  the  force  of  the 
enemy  as  having  been  "sent  for  no  other  purpose; 
as  we  found  after,  than  to  take  me."*  In  all  this, 
the  Colonel  was  mistaken.  It  is  clear  that  the  Lieu 
tenant  Governor  did  not  send  the  Ottawa  chief  and 
his  Indians  to  the  Illinois  at  all ;  and  it  is  certain 
that  the  object  of  their  going  was  not  directed  against 
Clark  alone,  but  to  take  "rebel"  prisoners  generally. 
On  their  way  the  Indian  war-party  came  upon  some 
"French  hunters  of  the  Illinois,"  first  taking  away 

*  Clark  to  Mason.  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp. 
53,  61. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      297 

their  horses  but  afterward  returning  them.  They  were 
not  otherwise  molested.*  French  residents  of  the  Illi 
nois  were  not  the  kind  of  prisoners  wanted  by  the 
savages  in  this  expedition. 

It  was  now  clear  to  the  mind  of  Clark  that  the 
British  were  in  possession  of  Vincennes  and  that,  con 
sequently,  an  attack  by  the  enemy  in  force  would 
not  be  long  delayed,  though  there  could  be  no  present 
danger.  The  outlook,  on  the  whole,  was  discourag 
ing  to  the  American  commander,  notwithstanding  he 
had  reason  to  expect  a  reinforcement  to  be  sent  him 
by  the  Virginia  government.  It  seemed  to  the  Colonel, 
after  a  careful  survey  of  the  situation,  that  all  of 
the  Illinois,  except  the  fortification  in  Kaskaskia 
guarded  by  his  men,  would,  in  a  few  months,  be 
again  in  possession  of  the  English ;  —  his  garrison, 
he  believed,  would  not  surrender  unless  driven  to  it 
by  the  greatest  distress.  He  sent  horsemen  in  the 
direction  of  Vincennes  to  take  a  prisoner  if  possible, 

*  Hamilton  says,  that  Charles  Beatibien,  one  of  the  party, 
took  their  horses  and  would  have  kept  them  but  for  the  Ottawa 
chief  who  reproached  him  for  acting  contrary  to  his  (Hamil 
ton's)  orders.  Beaubien  also  assured  the  hunters  that  the 
British  and  their  Indian  allies  intended  to  recapture  their 
towns  and  put  all  the  inhabitants  to  death  (Hamilton  to 
Haldimand,  July  6,  1781  —  Germain  MSS.)  This  "treachery" 
of  Beaubien,  Hamilton  declares,  was  the  reason  why  Clark 
escaped ;  and  this  may  have  been  true,  as  the  hunters,  now 
thoroughly  frightened,  made  all  haste  to  the  settlement  giving 
the  alarm  first  to  some  negroes,  who  quickly  notified  the  Kas- 
kaskians  of  the  approach  of  the  war  party,  at  the  same  time 
greatly  exaggerating  the  number  of  the  approaching  enemy. 
It  is  probable  that  "Hamilton's  orders"  as  given  to  Beaubien 
were  to  treat  the  French  and  Creole  residents  of  the  Illinois 
as  friends;  hence  the  Lieutenant  Governor  speaks  of  the 
words  of  Beaubien-  as  being  treacherous. 


298       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

from  whom  he  hoped  to  gain  intelligence;  but  their 
progress  was  impeded  by  high  water  and  they  returned 
empty-handed. 

Now,  in  the  very  height  of  Clark's  anxiety,  there 
arrived  at  Kaskaskia,  on  the  evening  of  the  twenty- 
ninth  of  January,  Francis  Vigo,  of  the  firm  of  Vigo 
and  Gosti,  merchants  of  St.  Louis,  connected  in  bus 
iness  with  the  Governor  of  Upper  Louisiana.  Vigo 
was  just  from  Vincennes,  whither  he  had  gone  early 
in  December*  on  his  own  private  business. f  He  was 
there  when  the  place  was  taken  by  Hamilton,^:  but 
was  detained  by  the  Lieutenant  Governor.  However, 
he  soon  found  means  of  escaping,§  and  while  on  his 
way  back  to  St.  Louis,  stopped  at  Kaskaskia. || 

The  Colonel  lost  no  time  in  writing  to  the  Vir 
ginia  governor,  giving  the  particulars  he  had  just 

*  Vigo  must  have  started  for  Vincennes  after  the  fourth 
of  December,  as  he  cashed  a  draft  on  that  day  either  at  Kas 
kaskia  or  St.  Louis,  drawn  by  Clark  on  Oliver  Pollock,  the 
Virginia  agent  at  New  Orleans.  (See  A  Centennial  Lawsuit. 
By.  C.  C.  Baldwin.  Western  Reserve  and  Northern  Ohio 
Historical  Society's  Tract,  No.  35,  Dec.  1876.) 

t  "On  his  lawful  business"  :  "Bowman's  Journal"  in  De 
partment  of  State  MSS.  It  is  the  same  when  printed  in 
Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  99. 

J  Clark  to  Mason.  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  63. 

§  Clark  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  Feb.  3d  [Jan.  30th], 
1779.  (Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  I,  pp.  315, 
316).  The  imprisonment  of  Vigo  by  Hamilton  was  only  to 
detain  him  in  Vincennes.  Being  a  Spanish  subject,  he  was 
well  treated,  —  only  required  to  report  himself  once  a  day 
at  headquarters,  but  his  merchandise  was  confiscated. 

||  Vigo  did  not  go  to  St.  Louis  first  as  has  been  very 
generally  asserted.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note 
LXXX.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.  290 

received  from  Vigo:  "No  attack  is  to  be  made  on 
the  garrison  at  Kaskaskia  until  the  Spring.  The 
passage  is  too  difficult  at  present.  His  Indians  are 
sent  to  war  against  different  parts  of  the  country, 
especially  Kentucky.  Belts,  presents,  and  speeches 
are  sent  to  all  the  nations  south  of  the  Ohio,  request 
ing  them  immediately  to  meet  at  a  general  council 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee  river,  to  lay  the  best 
plans  for  cutting  off  the  rebels  in  the  Illinois  and 
in  Kentucky." 

"The  Grande  Couette  and  his  nation,"  continued 
the  Colonel,  "living  at  Port  St.  Vincent  [Vincennes] 
told  Hamilton  that  he  and  his  people  were  Big  Knives 
and  would  not  give  their  hands  any  more  to  the 
English ;  for  he  would  shortly  see  his  father  who' was 
at  Kaskaskia.  There  are  ninety  regulars  in  the  gar 
rison  at  Vincennes ;  also  a  few  volunteers,  and  about 
fifty  Shawanese  Indians,  that  are  shortly  to  go  to 
war.  They  are  very  busy  in  repairing  the  fort,  which 
will  shortly  be  very  strong.  One  brass  six-pounder, 
two  iron  four-pounders,  and  two  swivels,  are  mounted 
in  the  bastions.  They  have  plenty  of  ammunition  and 
provisions,  and  all  kinds  of  warlike  stores,  and  are 
making  preparations  for  the  reduction  of  the  Illinois 
and  other  places  held  by  the  rebels.  They  have  no 
suspicions  of  a  visit  from  the  Americans.  This  was 
Mr.  Hamilton's  circumstances  when  Mr.  Vigo  left 
him."*  But  he  also  informed  Clark  that  Hamilton's 
force  when  the  Governor  reached  Vincennes  consisted 
of  thirty  regulars,  with  fifty  French  volunteers  and 

*  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  I,  pp.  315,  316. 
The  Piankeshaw  chief,  Grande  Couette  (or  Coite),  is  men 
tioned  by  Clark  as  the  "Grand  Kite."  The  Colonel's  knowl 
edge  of  the  French  language  was  limited. 


300       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

about  four  hundred  Indians,*  and  further  that  he 
not  only  took  the  fort  with  Capt.  Helm  and  several 
other  Americans  who  were  there,  but  secured  a  num 
ber  of  horses  designed  for  Kentucky. f 

Hamilton  was  fully  in  the  belief,  when  he  heard 
of  the  desertion  of  the  corporal  and  six  men  of  La- 
mothe's  company  at  the  mouth  of  the  Wabash,  that 
they  went  directly  to  Kaskaskia,  where  some  of  the 
men  had  relatives  living  ;J  and  he  subsequently  de 
clared  they  were  the  first  to  give  Clark  intelligence 
of  his  being  at  Vincennes.§  It  is  doubtful  if  he  ever 
learned  the  real  offender  was  Vigo. 

If  the  situation  had  before  appeared  desperate  to 
the  American  commander,  it  seemed  no  less  critical 
on  his  getting  the  intelligence  communicated  by  Vigo. 
"At  this  moment,"  he  subsequently  wrote,  "I  would 
have  bound  myself  seven  years  a  slave  to  have  had 
five  hundred  troops."  The  only  probable  way  to  main 
tain  the  country  was,  in  his  judgment,  to  take  ad- 
vangtage  at  once  of  Hamilton's  weakness ;  perhaps 
he  might  be  fortunate.  He  considered  the  inclemency 
of  the  season  and  the  badness  of  the  roads,  or  trails, 
an  advantage ;  as  the  enemy  would  be  more  off  their 
guard  in  all  quarters.  So  the  next  day  after  Vigo's 
appearance,  he  collected  his  officers  about  him  and  told 

*  "Bowman's  Journal"  in  Department  of  State  MSS. 
(See  also  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  99.) 

f  "Bowman's  Journal,"  Department  of  State  MSS.  (See 
as  to  Clark's  published  errors  concerning  the  information 
brought  him  by  Vigo,  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note 
LXXXI.) 

J  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Jan.  24-30,  1779.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 

§  Same  to  same,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       301 

them  what  he  believed  the  chances  were  for  success. 
They  agreed  with  their  commander ;  and  all  were 
eager  for  the  trial.* 

As  a  number  o'f  days  must  have  passed  after  Vigo 
left  Vincennes  before  his  arrival  at  Kaskaskia  —  that 
fact  accounts  for  his  not  knowing  of  the  return  home 
of  most  of  the  savages  from  the  place  first  mentioned. 
Had  Clark  known  of  the  departure  of  the  Indians, 
his  determination  to  march  against  Hamilton  would 
not  have  seemed  so  desperate. 

"3Oth  [Jan.]  — On  which  Col.  Clark  called  a  coun 
cil  with  his  officers  and  it  was  concluded  to  go  and 
attack  Gov.  Hamilton  at  all  events ;  for  fear,  if  it 
was  let  alone  'till  the  spring,  that  he  with  his  Indians 
would  '  undoubtedly  cut  us  all  off.  —  "Bowman's 
Journal"  in  the  department  of  State  MSS.  (See  ap 
pendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  LXXXII,  concerning 
some  published  errors  as  to  the  reasons  inducing 
Clark  to  undertake  the  capture  of  Hamilton  in  Vin 
cennes." 

It  was  immediately  after  taking  his  resolution  that 
Clark  wrote  the  Governor  of  Virginia : 

"As  it  is  now  near  twelve  months  since  I  have 
had  the  least  intelligence  from  you,  I  almost  despair 
of  any  relief  being  sent  to  me.  I  have,  for  many 
months  past,  had  reports  of  an  [American]  army 
marching  against  Detroit,  but  no  certainty.  A  late 
maneuver  of  the  famous  Hair-Buyer  General,  Henry 
Hamilton,  Esquire,  Lieutenant  Governor  of  Detroit, 
has  alarmed  us  much.  On  the  sixteenth  [i7th]  of 
December,  last,  he,  with  a  body  of  six  hundred  men. 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp. 
63,  64. 


302       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

composed  of  regulars,  French  volunteers,  and  Indians, 
took  possession  of  St.  Vincent  [Vincennes]  on  the 
Wabash  and  what  few  men  composed  the  garrison, 
they  not  being  able  to  make  the  lea*st  defense.  Ham 
ilton  is  influencing  all  the  Indians  he  possibly  can  to 
join  him.  I  learn  that  those  who  have  treated  with 
me,  have  as  yet  refused  his  offers.  I  have  for  some 
time  expected  an  attack  from  him.  He  has  blocked 
up  the  Ohio  river  with  a  party  of  French  and  Indians." 
"Being  sensible,"  Clark  continued,"  that,  with 
out  a  reinforcement,  which,  at  present  I  have  hardly 
a  right  to  expect,  I  shall  be  obliged  to  give  up  the 
country  to  Mr.  Hamilton,  unless  there  is  a  turn  of 
fortune  in  my  favor,  I  am  resolved  to  take  advantage 
of  his  present  situation  and  risk  the  whole  in -a  single 
battle.  I  shall  set  out  in  a  few  days  with  all  the  force 
I  can  raise  of  my  own  troops  and  a  few  militia  that 
I  can  depend  on,"  "I  know,"  he  added,  "the  case  is 
desperate;  but,  sir,  we  must  either  quit  the  country 
or  attack  Mr.  Hamilton.  No  time  is  to  be  lost.  Were 
I  sure  of  a  reinforcement,  I  should  not  attempt  it. 
Who  knows  what  fortune  will  do  for  us?  Great 
things  have  been  effected  by  a  few  men  well  con 
ducted.  Perhaps  we  may  be  fortunate.  We  have 
this  consolation,  that  our  cause  is  just,  and  that  our 
country  will  be  grateful  and  not  condemn  our  con 
duct  in  case  we  fall  through.  If  we  fail,  the  Illinois 
as  well  as  Kentucky,  I  believe,  is  lost."* 

*  Clark  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  Feb.  3  [Jan.  30], 
1779.  (Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  I,  pp.  315, 
316.)  It  will  be  noticed  that  even  in  writing  so  soon  after 
his  conversation  with  Vigo,  the  Colonel  exaggerated  some 
what  —  placing  the  whole  body  of  men  under  Hamilton  who 
took  possession  of  Vincennes  at  six  hundred. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       303 

So  it  was  the  American  commander  saw  there 
was  no  alternative;  he  must  attack  the  enemy  in 
Vincennes.  He  must  take  Hamilton  or  Hamilton 
would  take  him. 

So  soon  as  Clark  had  matured  his  plans,  he 
aroused  himself  to  the  utmost  exertion.  On  the  last 
day  of  January,  he  sent  an  express  to  Captain  Richard 
McCarty,  who  had  gone  back  to  Cahokia  with  the 
volunteer  company  that  came  away  when  Captain 
Bowman  left  there,  ordering  him  to  return  to  Kas- 
kaskia.  The  determination  of  the  American  com 
mander  to  march  against  Vincennes  was  quickly 
known  throughout  all  the  Illinois  towns.  "The  whole 
country,"  he  wrote,  "took  fire  at  the  alarm ;  and 
every  order  was  executed  with  cheerfulness  by  every 
description  of  the  inhabitants."  Provisions  were  pre 
pared;  volunteering  was  encouraged;  "and,  as  we 
had  plenty  of  stores,"  adds  the  Commander,  "every 
man  was  completely  rigged  with  what  he  could  de 
sire  to  withstand  the  coldest  weather."* 

The  Colonel  conducted  himself  as  though  he  was 
sure  of  taking  Hamilton ;  and  he  instructed  his  of 
ficers  "to  observe  the  same  rule."  In  a  day  or  two, 
the  inhabitants  all  seemed  to  believe  it.  Many  per 
sons,  anxious  to  retrieve  their  character  for  loyalty 
to  the  American  cause,  enlisted  for  the  expedition. 
The  ladies,  also,  began  to  be  spirited  and  to  interest 
themselves  in  the~~undertaking,  "which  had  great  ef 
fect  on  the  young  men."f 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p. 
138. 

f  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  64. 


304       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

On  the  first  day  of  February,  in  accordance  with 
Clark's  determination  of  two  day's  previous,  orders 
were  given  for  "a  large  bateau"  —  which,  in  reality, 
was  a  small  galley,  fitted  out  some  time  previous  — 
to  be  got  ready  for  the  expedition.  It  was  finished  on 
the  third,  "completely  fitted  up,"  and  her  loading, 
consisting  of  provisions  "and  great  stores  of  ammuni 
tion,"  put  on  board,  together  with  two  four-pounders 
and  four  large  swivels.  This  gun-boat,  the  first  one 
prepared  by  the  Americans  west  of  Pittsburg,  was 
named  the  Willing,  in  honor  of  Captain  James  Will 
ing.  She  was  manned  by  forty-six  men  and  a  lieu 
tenant  —  "a  fine  company"  —  all  under  command  of 
Lieutenant  John  Rogers.  "This  vessel  when  com 
plete,"  afterwards  wrote  Clark,  "was  much  admired 
by  the  inhabitants,  as  no  such  thing  had  been  seen 
in  the  country  before.  I  had  great  expectations  from 
her." 

Lieutenant  Rogecs  was  directed  to  force  his  way 
up  the  Wabash  to  within  ten  leagues  of  Vincennes 
(as  high  as  the  mouth  of  the  White  river),  and  td 
secrete  himself  until  further  orders;  but  if  he  found 
himself  discovered,  he  was  to  do  the  enemy  all  the 
damage  he  could  without  running  too  great  a  risk  of 
losing  his  vessel,  and  not  to  leave  the  river  until  he 
had  no  longer  hope  of  Clark's  arrival  by  land ;  but, 
by  all  means,  he  was  to  conduct  himself  so  as  to  give 
no  suspicion  of  the  approach  of  the  American  com 
mander.  If  Clark  should  suffer  defeat,  the  boat  was 
to  join  Col.  David  Rogers  on  the  Mississippi.  This 
officer,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Virginia  senate,  on 
the  fourteenth  of  January,  1778,  had  been  selected  by 
Governor  Henry  to  proceed  to  New  Orleans  to  bring 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      305 

up  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  rivers  some  goods  sent 
there  by  Spain  for  that  State  —  "which  you  will  take," 
said  the  Governor  in  his  instructions,  "under  your 
care  and  safely  convey  home."  "You  are  to  take  my 
instructions  to  Colonel  Clark,"  continued  Henry,  "by 
which  he  is  directed  to  escort  you  homeward."  Rogers 
raised  a  small  party  of  men  in  the  Redstone  (now 
Brownsville)  region  of  Pennsylvania  and  in  keel-boats 
floated  down,  after  considerable  trouble  and  delay, 
to  New  Orleans.  When  he  arrived,  he  found  he 
would  have  to  return  to  St.  Louis  to  obtain  the  goods ; 
he  started  up  the  Mississippi  for  that  purpose.  How 
ever,  early  in  October,  1779,  after  reaching  a  point 
just  above  the  mouth  of  the  Licking  river  on  the  Ohio, 
his  force  was  attacked  by  Indians,  a  large  portion  killed 
or  taken  prisoners,  and  much  of  his  cargo  captured. 
Rogers  was  killed.  The  Willing  left  Kaskaskia  about 
two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  fourth  of  Feb 
ruary.* 

About  ten  o'clock  of  the  same  day  of  the  de 
parture  of  the  gun-boat,  Captain  McCarty  arrived  with 
a  company  of  volunteers  from  Cahokia ;  and,  on  the 
fifth,  a  company  was  raised  in  Kaskaskia  under  the 

*  Clark  to  Gov.  Henry  of  Virginia,  Feb.  3  [Jan.  30],  1779: 
Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  I,  p.  316.  Jefferson's 
Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222  n.  "Bowman's  Journal,"  of  Feb.  1, 
1779,  Department  of  State  MSS.,  —  and  as  printed  in  Clark's 
Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  99.  See,  also,  p.  64  —  Clark  to 
Mason  —  printed  in  the  work  last  cited ;  and  Clark's  Memoir 
-Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  138.  For  the  fact  that 
there  was  a  lieutenant  of  the  crew  —  not  the  commander  of 
the  boat  —  I  am  indebted  to  another  and  trustworthy  account. 
(See,  also,  as  to  the  Willing,  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note 
LXXXIII.) 

20 


306       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

command  of  Captain  Charleville.  A  pack-horse  mas 
ter  had  previously  been  appointed  and  ordered  to 
prepare  pack-saddles  and  other  necessary  equipments 
for  the  horses  which  were  to  be  taken  along.  Pro 
visions,  also,  sufficient  in  quantity,  as  was  supposed, 
to  supply  the  men  on  the  march,  were  provided.* 

"The  principal  persons  which  follow  me  on  this 
forlorn  hope,"  wrote  the  American  commander  be 
fore  starting,  "are  Captains  Joseph  Bowman,  John 
Williams,  Edward  Worthington,  Richard  McCarty  and 
Francis  Charleville;  Lieutenants  Richard  Brashear, 
Wliliam  Keller,  Abraham  Chapline,  John  Gerault,  and 
John  Bayley;  also  several  other  brave  subalterns. 
You  must  be  sensible  of  the  feeling  I  have  for  these 
brave  officers  and  soldiers  that  are  determined  to  share 
my  fate,  let  it  be  what  it  will."f 

*  See  Appendix,  Note  LXXXIV,  as  to  error  concerning 
the  supplies  taken  along  by  Clark. 

t  Clark  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  February  3  [Jan.  30], 
1779.  (Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  I,  pp.  315, 
316),  before  cited.  I  have  corrected  Clark's  spelling  of  sev 
eral  names.  In  his  letter  to  Mason,  the  Colonel  says  he  was 
"joined  by  two  volunteer  companies  of  the  principal  young 
men  of  the  Illinois,  commanded  by  Captains  McCarty  and 
Charleville ;  those  of  the  troops  were  commanded  by  Captains 
Bowman,  Williams  and  Worthington,  of  the  light  horse." 
(Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  65.) 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

ON  the  fifth  day  of  February,  1779,  all  prepara 
tions  for  the  march  from  Kaskaskia  to  Vin- 
cennes  having  been  completed,  Colonel  Clark 
and  his  little  band  (himself  at  its  head)  moved  out 
of  the  place  under  escort  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
village.*  Father  Gibault  "after  a  very  suitable  dis 
course,"  gave  them  —  one  hundred  and  seventy  in 
number  —  absolution;  "and  we  set  out,"  wrote  the 
Commander  subsequently,  "on  a  forlorn  hope  indeed; 
for  our  whole  party,  with  the  boat's  crew,  consisted 
of  only  a  little  upwards  of  two  hundred.  I  cannot 
account  for  it,  but  I  still  had  inward  assurance  of 
success,  and  never  could,  when  weighing  every  cir 
cumstance,  doubt  it.  But  I  had  some  secret  check."f 
The  Colonel  left  the  fort  in  Kaskaskia  governed 
by  the  militia  —  about  every  other  one  of  the  able- 
bodied  men  enrolling  themselves  to  guard  the  several 

*  "On  the  5th  I  marched"  :  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's 
Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  65.  The  same  date  is  given  in 
Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  139,  and 
in  "Bowman's  Journal,"  in  the  Department  of  State  MSS. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  about  that  being  the  day  of  starting; 
and  yet,  in  his  letter  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia  of  the  29th 
of  April  (Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222  n),  the  Colonel 
says:  "I  marched  on  the  7th  of  February."  It  was  a  slip 
of  his  memory ;  or,  he  may  not,  for  certain  reasons  hereafter 
mentioned,  have  considered  the  5th  and  6th  as  really  marching 
days. 

f  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p. 
— .  (See  as  to  the  entire  force  which  went  against  Vincennes, 
Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  LXXXV.) 

(307) 


308      HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

villages.  The  distance  to  be  traveled  was  about  two 
hundred  miles,*  "through,  I  suppose,"  afterwards 
wrote  Clark,  "one  of  the  most  beautiful  countries  in 
the  world,  but,  at  this  time,  in  many  parts  flowing 
with  water,  and  the  marching  exceedingly  bad." 

After  crossing  the  Kaskaskia  river,  at  about  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  march  began.  Clark  rode 
a  horse  which  had  been  brought  from  New  Mexico, 
—  "The  finest  stallion  by  far  that  is  in  the  country," 
wrote  the  Colonel  subsequently.!  Only  about  three 
miles  were  made  the  first  day,  when  they  encamped, 
the  weather  being  rainy  and  drizzly.  Here  they  lay 
the  next  day,  —  starting  early,  however,  on  the  seventh 
and  making  a  good  day's  progress  —  nine  leagues, 
notwithstanding  the  roads  were  heavy,  owing  to  mud 
and  water.  Their  camp  that  night  was  pitched  in  a 
square  —  baggage  in  the  center ;  each  company  was 
to  guard  its  own.  Fortunately,  though  the  weather 
was  wet,  it  was  not  cold  for  the  season.^ 

The  route  the  army  was  following  was  one  known 
as  the  "Vincennes  trace,"  from  Kaskaskia  to  Vin- 
cennes.  It  was  a  portion  of  the  same  trail,  leading 
on  to  Wea  —  thence  to  Detroit  —  traveled  at  an  early 
day  by  the  French  and  Indians,  from  the  Mississippi 
to  the  lakes  —  from  Louisiana  to  Canada.  It  bore  off 
to  the  northeastward,  but  inclining  northward  to  avoid 

*  Appendix,  Note  LXXXVI.  ~ 

f  Clark  to  Gov.  Henry,  March  9,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 

I  "Bowman's  Journal,"  Feb.  7,  1779. — Department  of  State 
MSS.  In  this  Journal  as  printed  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the 
Illinois  (p.  100)  —  the  "leagues"  marched  are  mentioned  as 
"hours."  Compare,  in  connection  with  this  day's  march,  Clark 
to  Mason,  in  the  work  last  cited  (p.  65)  ;  also  Clark's 
Memoir  — Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  139. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       309 

the  deep  water  in  some  of  the  rivers  necessary  to  be 
crossed. 

On  the  eighth  "[we]  marched,"  says  one  of  the 
men,  in  his  record  of  that  day,  "early  through  the 
water,  which  we  now  began  to  meet  in  those  large 
and  level  plains,  where,  from  the  flatness  of  the  coun 
try,  [it]  rests  a  considerable  time  before  it  drains  off. 
Notwithstanding  [which]  our  men  were  in  great  spirits 
though  much  fatigued."* 

The  next  day  —  the  ninth  —  the  march  was  re 
sumed.  Only  a  moderate  day's  progress  was  made, 
as  it  rained  most  of  the  timef  The  Petit  ForkJ  was 
reached  on  the  tenth,  but  its  waters  were  so  high, 
"there  was  no  fording  it ;"  so  it  had  to  be  crossed  on 
trees  that  were  cut  down  for  that  purpose.  It  was  still 
raining;  and,  as  there  were  no  tents  brought  along, 
the  stormy  weather  made  it  disagreeable  for  all  dur 
ing  their  encampment  that  night,  which  was  near  the 
river.  The  next  day,  the  Saline  river  was  crossed. 
On  the  twelfth,  "numbers  of  buffaloes"  were  seen  and 
killed.  The  road  was  very  bad  from  the .  immense 
quantity  of  rain  that  had  fallen,  and,  as  a  conse 
quence,  the  men  were  very  tired.  The  encampment 
was  made  that  night  on  the  edge  of  the  woods ;  the 
prairie  —  "Cat  Plain,"  as  it  was  then  called  —  which 

*  "Bowman's  Journal." 

f  "9th.  Made  a  moderate  day's  march,  rain'd  most  of 
the  day"  —  "Bowman's  Journal"  in  Department  of  State  MSS. 
But,  when  printed,  the  entry  reads :  "9th.  Made  another 
day's  march.  Fair  the  part  of  the  day."  See  Clark's  Cam 
paign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  100. 

|  "Bowman's  Journal"  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  100,  correcting  the  entry  in  the  MS.  Journal,  where  it  is 
given  "Petit  Ford." 


310       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

had  just  been  traversed,  being  fifteen  miles  or  more 
across,  it  was  late  in  the  night  before  the  baggage  and 
troops  got  together.  From  this  point  Vincennes  was 
twenty-one  French  leagues  —  about  fifty  miles  —  dis 
tant,  in  a  direction  a  little  north  of  east.* 

Thus  far  on  the  march,  the  spirits  of  the  men 
were  excellent.  They  had  been  permitted  "to  shoot 
game  on  all  occasions,"  says  Clark,  "and  feast  on  it 
like  Indian  war-dancers  —  each  company  by  turns  in 
viting  the  other  to  their  feasts,  which  was  the  case 
every  night,  as  the  company  that  was  to  give  the 
feast  was  always  supplied  with  horses  to  lay  up  a 
sufficient  store  of  wild  meat  in  the  course  of  the 
day  —  myself  and  principal  officers  putting  on  the 
woodsmen,  shouting  now  and  then,  and  running  as 
much  through  the  mud  and  water  as  any  of  them.f 

It  was  early  on  the  thirteenth  that  the  drowned 
lands  of  the  Little  Wabash*were  reached.  The  first 
obstruction  of  any  consequence  was  now  encountered. 
The  two  Wabashes  —  that  is,  the  Little  Wabash  and 
a  tributary  flowing  into  it  from  the  north  —  were 
before  them,  and  although  three  miles  apart  they  made 
but  one  stream,  the  overflowed  water  between  them 
being  at  least  three  feet  deep  and  in  many  places 
four.  It  was  nearly  five  miles  to  the  opposite  hills, 
and,  in  that  distance,  the  shallowest  place,  except 
about  a  hundred  yards,  was  three  feet.  "This,"  said 
the  Colonel  afterwards,  "would  have  been  enough 

*  Bowman's  Journal"  —  Department  of  State  MSS.  The 
printed  Journal  erroneously  gives  twenty-one  miles.  (See 
Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  LXXXVII.) 

t  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p. 
139.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  LXXXVIII.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       311 

to   have   stopped   any   set   of   men   not    in   the   same 
temper  we  were." 

"We  reached  on  the  I3th  [the  banks  of  the  Little 
Wabash],  through  incredible  difficulties,"  is  the  sub 
sequent  relation  of  Clark,  "far  surpassing  anything 
that  any  of  us  had  ever  experienced.  Frequently  the 
diversions  of  the  night  wore  off  the  thoughts  of  the 
preceding  day.  We  formed  a  camp  on  a  height  which 
we  found  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  and  suffered  our 
troops  to  amuse  themselves.  I  viewed  this  sheet  of 
water  for  some  time  with  distrust ;  but,  accusing  my 
self  of  doubting,  I  immediately  set  to  work,  without 
holding  any  consultation  about  it,  or  suffering  any 
body  else  to  do  so  in  my  presence ;  ordered  a  pirogue 
to  be  built  immediately,  and  acted  as  though  crossing 
the  water  would  be  only  a  piece  of  diversion.  As 
but  few  could  work  at  the  pirogue  at  a  time,  pains 
were  taken  to  find  diversion  for  the  rest,  to  keep 
them  in  high  spirits."* 

The  pirogue  was  finished  the  next  day,  and  was 
put  into  the  river  about  four  o'clock  in  the  after 
noon.  It  was  manned  and  sent  to  explore  the  drowned 
lands  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  united  streams.  The 
crew  had  private  instructions  from  the  Colonel  what 
to  report  on  their  return ;  and,  if  possible,  they  were 
to  find  some  spot  of  dry  land.  They  found  about 
half  an  acre,  and  marked  the  trees  thence  back  to 
the  camp ;  they  brought  back,  of  course,  a  very 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
139,  140.  "Bowman's  Journal"  of  the  13th  of  Feb.,  in  Depart 
ment  of  State  MSS.  and  as  printed  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the 
Illinois,  p.  101.  Clark,  in  his  letter  to  Mason  (p.  66  of  the 
work  last  cited),  calls  the  pirogue  "a  large  canoe,"  which 
it  really  was. 


312       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

favorable  account.  No  attempt  was  made  to  utilize 
the  pirogue  again  until  the  fifteenth,  when  the  first 
channel  was  ferried  across,  the  men  going  no  farther 
than  to  shallow  water  on  the  opposite  side.  There 
they  erected  a  scaffold  on  which  was  placed  the  bag 
gage,  which  had  been  brought  along,  where  it  re 
mained  until  they  swam  the  horses  over,  when  it 
was  placed  upon  their  backs  and  thus  taken  to  the 
edge  of  the  second  channel,  the  canoe  again  ferry 
ing  the  men  over,  as  had  been  done  in  the  first  in 
stance,  when  another  scaffold  was  built  and  the  bag 
gage  placed  upon  it.  The  horses  were  then  made  to 
swim  a  second  time;  and  when  this  scaffold  was 
reached,  they  were  again  loaded :  and  men  and  animals 
waded  in  safety  to  the  high  ground,  where  a  camp 
was  made.  This  transit  was  accomplished  in  one 
day,  and  much  of  the  time  it  was  raining.*  Orders 
were  then  issued  not  to  fire  any  guns  for  the  future, 
except  in  case  of  necessity. f  Caution  was  necessary 
because  of  the  near  approach  to  the  enemy. 

The  march  on  the  sixteenth  was  continued,  but 
under  difficulties,  as  it  rained  the  whole  time  and 
the  men  were  continually  compelled  to  wade  through 

*  Appendix,   Note   LXXXIX. 

f  The  wording  of  "Bowman's  Journal"  in  the  Department 
of  State  MSS.,  for  the  fifteenth  is  as  follows : 

"15.  Ferried  across  the  two  Wabashes  with  it  [the  canoe ; 
—  it]  being  then  five  miles  in  water  to  the  opposite  hills, 
where  we  encamped.  Still  raining.  Orders  given  to  fire  no 
guns  in  future,  except  in  cases  of  necessity."  As  printed 
(Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  101),  the  words  are 
these,  for  the  same  date:  "15th.  Ferried  across  the  two 
Wabashes,  it  being  then  five  miles  in  water  to  the  opposite 
hills,  where  we  encamped.  Still  raining.  Orders  not  to  fire 
any  guns  for  the  future  but  in  case  of  necessity." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       313 

water.  Another  small  river  was  forded,  when,  un 
fortunately,  provisions  for  the  force  began  to  grow 
short.* 

Early  on  the  seventeenth,  the  march  was  resumed ; 
several  very  deep  runs  were  crossed.  Patrick  Ken 
nedy,  commissary  of  the  little  army,  was  then  sent 
with  three  men  to  endeavor  to  cross  the  river  Em 
barrass,  and  proceed  to  a  point  on  the  west  side  of 
the  Wabash  opposite  Vincennes,  where  there  was  a 
plantation, —  there  to  steal,  if  possible,  boats  or  canoes 
to  ferry  the  troops  over  the  stream  last  mentioned, 
which  the  force  was  now  approaching.  The  low 
lands  of  the  Embarrass  were  soon  reached  by  Clark, 
—  only  nine  miles  from  Fort  Sackville,  but  the  post 
was  on  the  east  side  of  the  Wabash;  and  it  was 
not  much  of  an  exaggeration  of  the  Colonel  when  he 
declared,  —  "and  every  foot  of  the  way  covered  with 
deep  water." 

The  Colonel  and  his  men  got  near  the  Embarrass 
about  an  hour  before  sunset. f  This  river  enters  the 
Wabash  on  the  west  not  a  great  distance  below  Vin 
cennes,  its  general  course  being  southeast.  The  Colonel 
now  strove  to  find  the  parent  stream.  After  traveling 
till  eight  o'clock  in  mud  and  water  still  the  Wabash 
was  not  reached,  nor  was  there  any  place  on  which 
to  encamp.  Presently  Mr.  Kennedy  and  his  party 
returned,  having  found  it  impossible  to  cross  the  Em- 

*  The  stream  crossed  on  the  sixteenth  is  given  in  "Bow 
man's  Journal,"  (Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  101), 
as  "Fox  river;"  in  Clark's  Memoir  [Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of 
1859),  p.  141],  as  "Fur  river;"  in  "Bowman's  Journal"  in 
the  Department  of  State  MSS.,  the  name  is  not  mentioned. 
The  probability  is  that  "Fox  river"  is  the  true  reading. 

t  Appendix,  Note  XC. 


314       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

barrass.  At  length  a  small  spot  of  ground  was  dis 
covered  from  which  the  water  had  fallen  and  upon 
it  the  army  staid  the  remainder  of  the  night.  The 
weather  was  dark  and  drizzly.* 

At  break  of  day,  on  the  eighteenth,  Hamilton's 
morning  gun  in  Fort  Sackville  was  heard.  Clark  set 
off  and  marched  down  the  Embarrass.  Some  fine  land 
was  seen.  At  about  two  o'clock,  the  bank  of  the 
Wabash  was  reached.  Rafts  for  four  men  to  cross 
the  river  were  made,  to  enable  them  to  go  up  to 
Vincennes  to  steal  boats ;  but  the  attempt  proved 
abortive.  They  spent  the  day  and  the  night  on  some 
old  logs  in  the  water  to  no  purpose,  for  there  was 
not  one  foot  of  dry  land  to  be  found ;  they  got  back 
to  their  comrades  the  next  day  at  three  o'clock.  The 
camp  of  the  army  for  the  night  was  about  ten  miles 
from  Vincennes.  The  army  had  marched  nine  miles 
down  the  Embarrass  and  the  distance  was  greater 
to  Fort  Sackville  than  at  the  point  where  the  stream 
was  first  reached.  There  was  not,  the  Colonel  sub 
sequently  declared,  more  than  one-quarter  of  the  ten 
miles  yet  to  be  traveled  "that  was  not  three  feet 
and  upwards  under  water,  and  there  was  not  a  mouth 
ful  of  provisions  left.f 

On  the  nineteenth  Captain  McCarty's  company 
was  set  at  work  making  a  canoe.  When  it  was 
finished  three  men  embarked  in  it  along  with  the 

*  "Bowman's  Journal"  of  the  seventeenth.  See  also  Clark 
to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  66.  In  Clark's 
Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  141  —  "Bowman's 
Journal"  for  the  day  is  copied,  but  Mr.  Kennedy's  name  is 
given  incorrectly  as  "Kernedy." 

t  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  66. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      315 

Captain,  to  make  still  another  (the  third)  attempt  to 
steal  boats.  The  party,  however,  soon  returned,  hav 
ing  discovered  four  large  fires  about  a  league  up  the 
river  which  seemed  to  be  those  of  whites  and  Indians. 

As  yet  nothing  had  been  heard  of  the  Willing. 
Clark  ordered  two  men  into  the  canoe  with  directions 
to  drop  down  the  Wabash  until  they  met  Lieutenant 
Rogers  and  his  galley.  Word  was  sent  the  com 
mander  of  the  boat  to  come  on  day  and  night,  as 
that  seemed  now  about  the  last  hope  of  the  little 
army.  Many  of  the  men  were  much  cast  down,  par 
ticularly  the  volunteers.  They  had  had  no  provisions 
of  any  sort  for  two  days.  It  is  not  too  much  to 
say  starvation  stared  them  in  the  face.  It  seemed 
indeed  a  "hard  fortune."* 

Here  is  the  suggestive  entry  of  one  of  the  force 
in  his  journal  for  the  next  day  —  the  twentieth: 
"Camp  very  quiet,  but  hungry.  Some  almost  in  de 
spair.  Many  of  the  Creole  volunteers  talk  of  return 
ing."  But  the  subsequent  narration  of  Clark  adds 
somewhat  of  a  silver  lining  to  this  dark  cloud:  "Many 
of  our  volunteers  began,  for  the  first  time,  to  de 
spair.  Some  talked  of  returning;  but  my  situation 
was  now  such  that  I  was  past  all  uneasiness.  I 
laughed  at  them  without  persuading  or  ordering  them 
to  desist  from  any  such  attempt ;  but  told  them  I 
should  be  glad  if  they  would  go  out  and  kill  some 
deer.  They  went,  confused  with  such  conduct.  M}j 
own  troops  I  knew  had  no  idea  of  abandoning  an 
enterprise  for  the  want  of  provisions  while  there  were 
plenty  of  good  horses  in  their  -possession;  and  I 

*  "Bowman's  Journal"  for  the  nineteenth. 


316       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

knew  that,  without  any  violence,  the  volunteers  could 
be  detained  for  a  few  days,  in  the  course  of  which 
time  our  fate  would  be  known.  I  conducted  myself 
in  a  manner  that  caused  the  whole  to  believe  that  1 
had  no  doubt  of  success,  which  kept  their  spirits 
up."* 

Orders  were  now  given  for  the  making  of  more 
canoes.  At  noon,  a  boat  on  the  river  was  brought 
to  having  on  board  five  Frenchmen  from  Vincennes. 
Clark  was  informed  by  them  that  he  was  not  as 
yet  discovered,  and  that  the  inhabitants  were  well- 
disposed  toward  the  Americans.  They  also  gave  in 
formation  that  Captain  Williams'  brother,  who  had 
been  captured  just  after  leaving  Fort  Sackville  with 
the  letter  of  Captain  Helm  to  Clark  in  his  care,  had 
made  his  escape ;  and  that  Francis  Maisonville,  with 
a  party  of  Indians,  were  then  seven  days  in  pursuit 
of  him.f  The  Colonel  likewise  obtained  from  the 
Frenchmen  a  full  report  of  the  repairs  made  to  the 
fort,  of  its  strength,  and  of  the  number  of  men  con 
stituting  the  garrison.  He  was  told  by  them  of  two 
canoes  being  adrift  some  distance  up  the  Wabash; 
whereupon  Captain  Worthington  was  ordered,  with  a 
party,  to  go  in  search  of  them.  He  returned  late,  one 
only  having  been  secured.  One  of  Clark's  men,  be 
fore  dark,  killed  a  deer,  which  was  brought  into 
camp;  "this  was  very  acceptable." 

At  daybreak,  on  the  twenty-first  of  February,  the 
ferrying  over  the  Wabash  in  two  canoes  —  the  one 
captured,  also  one  just  completed  —  to  a  small  hill 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p. 
141  n. 

t  Appendix,  "Note  XCI. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      317 

called  the  "Lower  Mamelle,"  began.*  Clark  would 
have  crossed  at  a  greater  distance  from  Vincennes, 
but  the  White  river  coming  in  just  below  made  him 
fearful  of  getting  too  near  it.  All  reached  the  op 
posite  (left)  bank  of  the  Wabash  in  safety,  the  horses 
being  left  behind  in  care  of  a  guard  detailed  for  that 
purpose. f  Captain  Williams  was  sent  ahead  to  look 
for  a  passage  on  the  east  side  of  the  stream  to  the 
town,  he  having  crossed  the  river  with  the  first  who 
reached  the  eastern  shore  for  that  purpose,  taking  with 
him  two  men.  The  three  were  discovered  by  two 
men  in  a  canoe,  and  as  they  could  not  be  "brought 
to,"  Captain  Williams  thought  it  advisable  to  return. 
The  whole  force  being  across  the  river,  Clark  thought 
he  might  reach  the  town  that  night;  so  the  men 
plunged  into  the  water,  sometimes  up  to  the  neck,  and 
continued  wading  for  more  than  three  miles,  when 
a  halt  was  called  on  a  second  hill  called  also  "Ma 
melle."  It  rained  all  day  and  there  were  no  provisions. 
Here  they  encamped.  It  was  the  opinion  of  the  pilots 
that  no  further  progress  could  be  made. 

The  record  of  one  of  the  men  for  the  twenty- 
second  of  the  month  though  exceedingly  brief,  is 
suggestive :  "Colonel  Clark  encouraged  his  men  which 
gave  them  great  spirits.  '  Marched  on  in  the  water. 
Those  that  were  weak  and  faintish  from  so  much 

*  "21st.  [Feb.].  At  break  of  day  began  to  ferry  our  men 
over  in  our  two  canoes  to  a  small  little  hill  called  the  Lower 
Mamelle  (or  Bubble)."  —  "Bowman's  Journal"  in  Department 
of  State  MSS. 

"21st  [Feb.].  At  break  of  day  began  to  ferry  our  men 
over  in  our  two  canoes  to  a  small  hill."  Same  in  Clark's 
Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  102. 

t  This  fact  sufficiently  appears  hereafter. 


318       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

fatigue  went  in  the  canoes.  We  came  one  league 
farther  to  some  sugar  camps,  where  we  staid  all  night. 
Heard  the  evening  and  morning  guns  from  the  fort 
[in  Vincennes].  No  provisions  yet.  Lord  help  us!"* 

The  five  Frenchmen  who  were  from  Vincennes 
and  were  taken  on  the  river  below,  on  the  twentieth, 
gave  information  at  this  time  concerning  the  route 
that  was  of  value  of  Clark.  It  was  from  them  the 
Colonel  got  knowledge  of  the  sugar  camps  on  the 
bank  of  the  river,  where  he  was  now  encamped.  Years 
after,  Clark  wrote  that  he  had,  on  learning  from 
their  conversation,  the  position  of  the  high  ground, 
sent  a  canoe  to  examine  the  route,  which  returned 
without  finding  the  passage  there  feasible.  He  adds 
that  he  then  went  himself  and  sounded  the  water  and 
found  it  as  deep  as  to  his  neck.  "I  returned,"  are 
his  words  in  addition,  "with  a  design  to  have  the 
men  transported  on  board  the  canoes  to  the  sugar 
camp,  which  I  knew  would  take  the  whole  day  and 
ensuing  night  as  the  vessels  would  pass  slowly  through 
the  bushes.  The  loss  of  so  much  time  to  men  half 
starved  was  a  matter  of  consequence.  I  would  have 
given  a  great  deal  for  a  day's  provision."  . 

Clark  continues:  "I  returned  but  slowly  to  the 
troops,  giving  myself  time  to  think.  On  our  arrival, 
all  ran  to  hear  what  was  the  report.  Every  eye  was 
fixed  on  me.  I  unfortunately  spoke  in  a  serious  man 
ner  to  one  of  the  officers;  the  whole  were  alarmed 
without  knowing  what  I  said.  I  viewed  their  con- 

*  "Bowman's  Journal"  for  this  day  as  printed  —  Clark's 
Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  103  —  agrees  with  the  one  in  the 
Department  of  State  MSS.,  except  as  to  the  single  word 
"faintish,"  which  is  given  as  "famished,"  which  does  not 
express  the  true  idea. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      319 

fusion  for  about  one  minute  —  whispered  to  those 
near  to  me  to  do  as  I  did;  immediately  I  put  some 
water  in  my  hand,  poured  on  powder,  blackened  my 
face,  gave  the  wharwhoop,  and  marched  into  the 
water  without  saying  a  word.  The  party  gazed  and 
fell  in  silently,  one  after  another,  like  a  flock  of  sheep. 
I  ordered  those  near  me  to  begin  a  favorite  song  of 
theirs ;  it  soon  passed  through  the  line,  and  the  whole 
went  on  cheerfully."* 

Clark  also  says :  "I  now  intended  to  have  them 
transported  across  the  deepest  part  of  the  water; 
but  when  about  waist  deep,  one  of  the  men  informed 
me  that  he  thought  he  felt  a  path.  We  examined 
and  found  it  so,  and  concluded  that  it  kept  on  the 
highest  ground,  which  it  did,  and  by  taking  pains  to 
follow  it,  we  got  to  the  sugar  camp  without  the 
least  difficulty,  where  was  about  half  an  acre  of  dry 
ground,  —  at  least  not  under  water,  where  we  took 
up  our  lodging."f 

At  this  time,  the  five  Frenchmen  from  Vincennes 
appeared  to  be  uneasy  at  the  situation.  They  begged 
of  the  Colonel  that  they  might  go  in  the  two  canoes 
to  town  that  night.  They  said  they  would  bring  from 
their  own  houses  provisions  without  a  possibility  of 
any  one  knowing  it;  that  some  of  his  men  should 
go  with  them  as  a  surety  for  their  good  conduct; 
and  that  it  was  impossible  for  the  army  to  march  any 
farther  until  the  water  fell,  as  the  plain  was  too 
deep  to  be  traversed.  Some  of  the  officers  thought 
the  plan  might  be  adopted,  but  Clark  would  not 
suffer  it  to  be  done.  "I  never  could,"  are  his  words 

*  Clark's   Memoir — Dillon's   Indiana    (ed.   of   1859),   pp. 
142,  143.     (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  XCII.) 
f  Clark's  Memoir,  loc.  cit. 


320       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

subsequently,  "well  account  for  this  piece  of  obstinacy 
and  give  satisfactory  reasons  to  myself  or  anybody 
else  why  I  denied  a  proposition  apparently  so  easy 
to  execute  and  of  so  much  advantage,  but  something 
seemed  to  tell  me  that  it  should  not  be  done,  and 
it  was  not  done."* 

It  was  very  early  in  the  morning  of  the  twenty- 
third  that  the  little  army,  "prodigiously  hungry,"  be 
gan  its  march. f  At  the  very  commencement,  there 
was  a  stretch  of  land  called  the  "Horseshoe  Plain," 
more  than  three  miles  across,  "all  covered  with  water 
breast  high."  Here  it  was  thought  some  of  the  men 
would  surely  perish,  —  it  having  frozen  in  the  night* 
and  all  had  been  so  long  fasting.  Having  no  other 
resource  but  wading  this  plain  (or  rather  lake)  of 
waters,  they  plunged  into  it  with  courage,  Colonel 
Clark  being  first,  taking  care  to  have  the  boats  close 
by  to  take  those  that  were  weak  and  numbed  with 
cold,  into  them.J"  Never  were  men  so  animated  with 

*  Clark's  Memoir,  loc.  cit.  But  before  giving  these  inci 
dents,  Clark  confounds  the  day  in  which  they  took  place 
with  the  previous  one.  He  also  says  in  connection  with  his 
remarks  concerning  the  scarcity  of  provisions  that  he  would 
have  given  a  great  deal  for  one  of  his  horses,  —  his  meaning 
doubtless  was  —  that  it  might  have  been  killed  and  served 
out  as  food  to  his  men. 

t  Clark's  Journal  — entry  of  Feb.  23,  1779.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  This  Journal  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  "Bowman's 
Journal"  or  Clark's  Memoir.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narra 
tive,  Note  CXXVII.) 

t  "Bowman's  Journal"  as  printed,  is  evidently  at  fault  in 
saying  Clark  took  "care  to  have  the  boats  try  to  take  those 
that  were  weak  and  numbed  with  the  cold  into  them"  (the 
italicising  is  mine).  I  have  followed  the  one  in  the  Depart 
ment  of  State  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.  321 

the  thought  of  avenging  the  wrongs  done  to  their 
back  settlements  as  this  small  army  was."* 

Pressing  onward  against  such  almost  insurmount 
able  obstacles,  keeping  up  good  hearts  in  hopes  of  a 
speedy  sight  of  the  town,  at  last,  at  not  later  than 
two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  the  long-sought  village 
came  in  sight.  "The  spirit  of  my  men,"  wrote  Clark, 
"seemed  to  revive."  "We  marched  up  under  cover 
of  a  wood,"  adds  the  Colonel,  "called  the  'Warriors' 
island/  where  we  lay  concealed  until  sunset."f 

"To  our  inexpressible  joy  in  the  evening  of  the 
twenty-third/'  wrote  the  commander  subsequently, 
"we  got  safe  on  terra  firma  within  half  a  league  of  the 
fort,  covered  by  a  small  grove  of  trees,  where  we 
had  a  full  view  of  the  wished-for  spot. ''I 

In  after  years  Clark  recorded  a  number  of  inci 
dents  of  this  day  not  mentioned  in  any  contem 
poraneous  accounts :  "The  most  of  the  weather  we 
had  on  this  march  [from  Kaskaskia]  was  moist  and 
warm  for  the  season.  This  [the  one  of  the  twenty- 
third  of  February]  was  the  coldest  night  we  had.  The 
ice  in  the  morning  was  from  one-half  to  three-quarters 
of  an  inch  thick  near  the  shores  and  in  still  water. 

*  "Bowman's  Journal,"  entry  of  Feb.  23,  1779.  As  to  the 
spirits  of  the  men,  notwithstanding  their  famishing  condition, 
Clark,  in  his  Journal,  says :  "Set  off  very  early  [on  the 
morning  of  the  23d]  ;  waded  better  than  three  miles  on  a 
stretch;  our  people  prodigious [ly  hungry],  yet  they  keep  up 
a  good  heart  in  hopes  of  a  speedy  sight  of  our  enemy." 

t  Clark's  Journal.  —  Haldimand  MSS.  In  "Bowman's 
Journal"  as  printed  "Warriors'  island"  is  incorrectly  given  as 
"Warren's  Island"  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  104. 

t  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  67. 

21 


322       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

The  morning  [of  the  twenty-third]  was  the  finest  we 
had  on  our  march.  A  little  after  sunrise  I  lectured 
the  whole.  What  I  said  to  them  I  forgot;  but  it  may 
be  easily  imagined  by  a  person  that  could  possess  my 
affections  for  them  at  that  time:  —  I  concluded  by 
informing  them  that  passing  the  plain  that  was  in 
full  view  and  reaching  the  opposite  woods  [War 
riors'  island"]  would  put  an  end  to  their  fatigue; 
that  in  a  few  hours  they  would  have  a  sight  of  their 
long-wished  for  object;  and  [I]  immediately  stept 
into  the  water  without  waiting  for  a  reply.  A  huzza 
took  place." 

"As  we  generally  marched  through  the  water  in 
a  line,"  continues  Clark,  "before  the  third  [man] 
entered,  I  halted  and  called  to  Major  [Captain]  Bow 
man,  ordering  him  to  fall  in  the  rear  with  twenty- 
five  men  and  put  to  death  any  man  who  refused  to 
march,  as  we  wished  to  have  no  such  person  among 
us.  The  whole  gave  a  cry  of  approbation,  and  on 
.we  went.  This  was  the  most  trying  of  all  the  diffi 
culties  we  had  experienced.  I  generally  kept  fifteen 
or  twenty  of  the  strongest  men  near  myself,  and 
judged  from  my  own  feelings  what  must  be  that  of 
others.  Getting  about  the  middle  of  the  plain,  the 
water  about  mid-deep,  I  found  myself  sensibly  failing, 
and  as  there  were  no  trees  nor  bushes  for  the  men 
to  support  themselves  by,  I  feared  that  many  of  the 
most  weak  would  be  drowned.  I  ordered  the  canoes 
to  make  the  land,  discharge  their  loading,  and  play 
backward  and  forward  with  all  diligence  and  pick 
up  the  men ;  and,  to  encourage  the  party,  sent  some 
of  the  strongest  men  forward  with  orders  when  they 
(got  to  a  certain  place,  to  pass  the  word  back  that 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       323 

the  water  was  getting  shallow,  and  when  getting  near 
the  woods  to  cry  out  'Land!'  This  strategem  had 
the  desired  effect.  The  men  encouraged  by  it  exerted 
themselves  almost  beyond  their  abilities,  —  the  weak 
holding  by  the  stronger.  .  .  .  The  water  never 
got  shallower,  but  continued  deepening.  Getting  to 
the  woods  where  the  men  expected  [dry]  land,  the 
water  was  up  to  my  shoulders,  but  gaining  the  woods 
was  of  great  consequence ;  all  the  low  men  and  weakly 
hung  to  the  trees  and  floated  on  the  old  logs,  until 
they  were  taken  off  by  the  canoes.  The  strong  and 
tall  got  ashore  and  built  fires.  Many  would  reach 
the  shore  and  fall,  with  their  bodies  half  in  the  water, 
not  being  able  to  support  themselves  without  it." 

"This,"  adds  Clark,  "was -a  delightful  dry  spot  of 
ground  of  about  ten  acres.  We  soon  found  that  the 
fires  answered  no  purpose,  but  that  two  strong  men 
taking  a  weaker  one  by  the  arms  was  the  only  way 
to  recover  him;  and,  it  being  a  delightful  day,  it 
soon  did.  But  fortunately,  as  if  designed  by  Provi 
dence,  a  canoe  of  Indian  squaws  and  children  was 
coming  up  to  town,  and  took  through  part  of  this 
plain  as  a  high  way.  It  was  discovered  by  our  canoes 
as  they  were  out  after  the  men.  They  gave  chase 
and  took  the  Indian  canoe,  on  board  of  which  were 
near  half  a  quarter  of  a  buffalo,  some  corn,  tallow, 
kettles,  etc.  This  was  a  grand  prize  and  was  in 
valuable.  Broth  was  "immediately  made  and  served 
out  to  the  most  weakly  with  great  care :  most  of  the 
whole  got  a  little ;  but  a  great  many  gave  their  part 
to  the  weakly,  jocosely  saying  something  cheering  to 
their  comrades.  This  little  refreshment  and  fine 
weather,  by  the  afternoon,  gave  new  life  to  the  whole." 


324       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

''Crossing  a  narrow  deep  lake  in  the  canoes,  and 
marching  some  distance,"  are  Clark's  further  re 
marks,  "we  came  to  a  copse  of  timber  called  the 
Warrior's  island.  We  were  now  in  full  view  of  the 
fort  and  town  (not  a  shrub  between  us)  at  about 
two  miles'  distance.  Every  man  now  feasted  his  eyes 
and  forgot  that  he  had  suffered  anything,  —  saying 
that  all  that  had  passed  was  owing  to  good  policy 
and  nothing  but  what  a  man  could  bear;  and  that  a 
soldier  had  no  right  to  think,  etc.,  —  passing  from  one 
extreme  to  another,  which  is  common  in  such  cases."* 

The  Colonel  in  writing  to  a  friend  a  few  months 
after  the  transpiring  of  these  events,  says :  "If  I 
were  sensible  that  you  would  let  no  person  see  this 
relation,  I  would  give  you  a  detail  of  our  suffering 
for  four  days  in  crossing  those  waters  [meaning 
from  the  twentieth  to  the  twenty-third  day  of  Feb 
ruary,  inclusive],  and  the  manner  it  was  done,  as  I 
am  sure  you  would  credit  it,  but  it  is  too  incredible 
for  any  person  to  believe  except  those  that  are  well 
acquainted  with  me  as  you  are,  or  had  experience 
something  similar  to  it."f 

While  the  army  was  lying  on  "Warriors'  island" 
to  dry  their  clothes  by  the  sun,  another  prisoner, 
known  to  be  a  friend,  was  taken,  by  whom  the  Colonel 
got  all  the  intelligence  he  wished  for,  being  informed 
by  him  that  no  one  suspected  his  coming  at  that  season 
of  the  year,  and  further,  it  seems,  that  the  walls  of 
Fort  Sackville  had  just  been  completed  and  that  there 

*  Clark's  Memoir —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
143-145. 

t  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp, 
66,  67.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  XCIII.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      325 

were  a  good  many  Indians  in  Vincennes;  but  the 
man  captured  was  only  allowed  to  see  but  few  of  the 
soldiers.  "A  thousand  ideas,"  says  Clark,  "flashed 
in  my  head  at  this  moment.  I  found  that  Governor 
Hamilton  was  able  to  defend  himself  for  a  consider 
able  time,  but  knew  he  was  not  able  to  turn  out  of 
the  fort;  that  if  the  siege  continued  long,  a  superior 
number  might  come  against  us,  as  I  knew  there  was 
a  party  of  English  not  far  above  in  the  river;  and 
that,  if  they  found  out  our  numbers,  they  might  raise 
the  disaffected  savages  and  harass  us.  I  resolved 
to  appear  as  daring  as  possible,  that  the  enemy  might 
conceive  by  our  behavior  that  we  were  very  numerous 
and  thereby  probably  discourage  them.  I  imme 
diately  wrote  to  the  inhabitants  in  general,  in 
forming  them  where  I  was  and  what  I  determined 
to  do,  desiring  the  friends  to  the  States  to  keep  close 
to  their  houses,  and  those  in  the  British  interests  to 
repair  to  the  fort  and  fight  for  their  King;  other 
wise  there  would  be  no  mercy  shown  them,  —  at  the 
same  time  sending  the  compliments  of  several  of 
ficers  to  some  gentlemen  of  the  town  who  were  known 
to  them,  and  who,  it  was  expected,  would  reinforce 
me  on  my  arrival."*  The  letter  was  then  sent  by  the 
friendly  prisoner  —  the  one  last  taken  —  to  the  village, 
Clark  reasoning  that  it  would  cause  the  lukewarm  to 
be  decided ;  encourage  his  friends ;  and  astonish  the 
enemy ;  it  was  in  these  words : 

"To  the  Inhabitants  of  Vincennes: 

'GENTLEMEN  :  —  Being  now  within  two  miles  of  your  vil 
lage  with  my  army,  determined  to  take  your  fort  this  night, 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp. 
66-688.  As  to  there  being  a  party  of  English  not  far  above 
Vincennes,  Clark  had  been  wrongly  informed. 


326       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

and  not  being  willing  to  surprise  you,  I  take  this  step  to 
request  of  such  of  you  as  are  true  citizens,  and  willing  to 
enjoy  the  liberty  I  bring  you  to  remain  still  in  your  houses. 
And  those,  if  any  there  be,  that  are  friends  to  the  King,  will 
instantly  repair  to  the  fort  and  joint  the  Hair-buyer  General 
and  fight  like  men.  And  if  any  such,  as  do  not  go  to  the 
fort  shall  be  discovered  afterwards,  they  may  depend  on 
severe  punishment.  On  the  contrary,  those  that  are  true 
friends  to  liberty,  may  depend  on  being  well  treated.  And 
I  once  more  request  they  shall  keep  out  of  the  streets ;  for 
every  person  I  find  in  arms  on  my  arrival,  I  shall  treat  as  an 
enemy. 

"(Signed)  "G.    R.    CLARK."* 

The  comments  of  Clark  upon  what  took  place 
while  he  remained  on  "Warrior's  island,"  as  written 
in  after  years,  were  as  follows :  "Our  situation  was 
now  truly  critical  —  no  possibility  of  retreating  in 
case  of  defeat  —  and  in  full  view  of  a  town  that  had, 
at  this  time,  upwards  of  six  hundred  men  in  it  — 
troops,  inhabitants  and  Indians.  The  crew  of  the  gal 
ley  [the  Willing}  though  not  fifty  men,  would  have 
been  now  a  reinforcement  of  immense  magnitude  to 
our  little  army  (if  I  may  so  call  it),  but  we  would 
not  think  of  them.  We  were  now  in  the  situation 
that  I  had  labored  to  get  ourselves  in.  The  idea  of 
being  made  prisoner  was  foreign  to  almost  every  man, 
as  they  expected  nothing  but  torture  from  the  sav- 

*  This  letter  is  given  in  "Bowman's  Journal,"  in  the 
Department  of  State  MSS.,  as  well  as  in  the  same  printed  in 
Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois  (p.  104).  They  differ  some 
what  in  the  wording,  but  not  in  sense.  The  one  to  be  found 
in  Clark's  Memoir  — Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  146  — 
is  identical  with  the  last  mentioned.  I  have  followed  the 
one  in  the  Department  of  State  MSS.  In  Clark's  Journal 
(entry  of  the  23d  of  Feb.)  only  the  two  principal  points  of 
the  letter  are  mentioned,  and  these  briefly. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       327 

ages  if  they  fell  into  their  hands.  Our  fate  was  now 
to  be  determined,  probably  in  a  few  hours.  We  knew 
that  nothing  but  the  most  daring  conduct  would  in 
sure  success.  I  knew  that  a  number  of  the  inhabitants 
wished  us  well  —  that  many  were  lukewarm  to  the 
interest  of  either  [the  Americans  or  British]  ;  and 
I  also  learned  that  the  grand  chief  [of  the  Pianke- 
shams],  the  Tobacco's  son,  had,  but  a  few  days  be 
fore,  openly  declared  in  council  with  the  British  that 
he  was  a  brother  and  friend  to  the  Big  Knives.  These 
were  favorable  circumstances ;  and  as  there  was  but 
little  probability  of  our  remaining  until  dark  undis 
covered  I  determined  to  begin  the  career  immedi 
ately."* 

Clark  now  arranged  his  men  in  two  divisions.  In 
the  first  one  were  Captain  Williams  and  his  company, 
Captain  Worthington  and  his  company,  and  Captain 
Charleville  with  his  Kaskaskia  volunteer  company. 
In  the  second  division,  commanded  -by  Captain  Bow 
man,  were  his  own  company  and  Captain  McCarty 
with  the  Cahokia  volunteers.  They  were  ordered  by 
the  Colonel  to  march  with  the  greatest  regularity; 
and  the  men  were  enjoined  to  observe  the  commands 
of  their  officers ;  above  all  things,  they  were  to  keep 
silence.  The  five  men  captured  in  the  canoes  were 
to  act  as  guides. f 

The  little  army  lay  still  until  about  sunset,  in 
order  to  give  time  for  the  reception  and  reading  of 

*  Clark's  Memoir —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
145,  146.  But  he  had  been  wrongly  informed  as  to  the  open 
declaration  of  the  Tobacco's  son. 

t  Clark's  Journal  —  entry  of  Feb.  23,  1779.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


328       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

the  letter,  by  the  Vincennes  people,  when,  "with  colors 
flying  and  drums  braced"  the  march  began.* 

Clark's  letter  had  been  carried  into  the  town  and 
delivered  to  prominent  and  friendly  citizens.f  Those 
of  the  inhabitants  who  caught  sight  of  the  Colonel's 
flags  in  the  twilight,  judged  he  had  with  him  five 
hundred  men.J  The  houses  obstructed  the  view  from 
the  fort,  so  that  the  British  did  not  observe  the  ap 
proach  of  the  Americans,  and  they  were  not  notified 
of  it  by  any  one."§  As  the  army  neared  Vincennes, 
Lieutenant  Bayley,  with  fifteen  riflemen,  was  detached 
to  attack  the  fort,  —  keep  up  their  firing,  and  harass 
the  enemy  until  the  village  was  gained  and  he  should 
be  relieved. || 

According  to  Clark's  subsequent  statement,  the 
messenger  who  carried  his  letter  to  the  people  of  Vin 
cennes  was  anxiously  watched  by  the  Americans  until 

*  "Bowman's  Journal."  Clark,  in  his  letter  to  Mason 
says :  "I  dispatched  the  prisoner  off  with  this  letter,  waiting 
until  near  sunset  giving  [to  give]  him  time  to  get  near  the 
town  before  sunset,  before  we  marched"  (Clark's  Campaign 
in  the  Illinois,  p.  68.  The  italicising  is  mine).  But  the  state 
ment  in  "Bowman's  Journal"  is  the  correct  one :  "In  order 
[to  give  the  bearer  time]  to  publish  this  letter,  we  lay  still 
to  about  sundown."  The  words  "to  give  time"  which  are 
found  in  the  Journal  as  printed  are  not  given  in  the  same 
in  the  Department  of  State  MSS. 

f  This  fact  is  given  upon  the  authority  o'f  a  tradition, 
which,  seemingly,  is  worthy  of  entire  credit. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
Clark  had  so  manoeuvred  his  men  that  only  his  colors  could  be 
seen  from  the  town ;  and  as  these  were  numerous,  his  force 
was  judged  to  be  much  larger  than  it  really  was.  (Clark  to 
Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  68). 

§  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  loc.  cit. 

||  Appendix,  Note  XCIV. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      329 

he  entered  the  town ;  and  in  a  few  minutes  they  could 
see  with  their  glasses  some  stir  in  the  streets,  great 
numbers  running  or  riding  out  into  the  commons  to 
see  the  approaching  army,  as  was  supposed  by  the 
Colonel  and  his  men.  But  what  was  surprising  was, 
that  nothing  happened  having  the  appearance  of  the 
garrison  being  alarmed ;  —  no  drum  nor  gun  was 
heard.  "We  began  to  suppose,"  are  Clark's  words, 
"that  the  information  we  got  from  our  prisoners  was 
false,  and  that  the  enemy  already  knew  of  us  and  were 
prepared." 

"A  little  before  sunset,"  continues  Clark,  "we 
moved  and  displayed  ourselves  in  full  view  of  the 
town  —  crowds  gazing  at  us.  We  were  plunging  our 
selves  into  certain  destruction,  or  success.  There  was 
no  midway  thought  of.  We  had  but  little  to  say  to 
our  men,  except  inculcating  an  idea  of  the  necessity 
of  obedience.  We  knew  they  did  not  want  encourag 
ing,  and  that  anything  might  be  attempted  with  them 
that  was  possible  for  such  a  number,  —  perfectly  cool, 
under  proper  subordination,  pleased  with  the  pros 
pect  before  them,  and  much  attached  to  their  officers. 
They  all  declared  that  they  were  convinced  that  an 
implicit  obedience  to  orders  was  the  only  thing  that 
would  insure  success  and  hoped  that  no  mercy  would 
be  shown  the  person  that  should  violate  them.  Such 
language  as  this  from  soldiers  to  persons  in  our 
stations  must  have  been  [was]  exceedingly  agree 
able." 

"We  moved  on  slowly,"  adds  Clark,  "in  full  view 
of  the  town ;  but,  as  it  was  a  point  of  some  conse 
quence  to  us  to  make  ourselves  appear  as  formidable 
[as  possible],  we,  in  leaving  the  covert  that  we  were 


330       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

in,  marched  and  counter-marched  in  such  a  manner 
that  we  appeared  numerous.  In  raising  volunteers  in 
the  Illinois,  every  person  that  set  about  the  business 
had  "a  set  of  colors  given  him,  which  they  brought 
with  them,  to  the  amount  of  ten  or  twelve  pairs. 
These  were  displayed  to  the  best  advantage;  and  as 
the  low  plain  we  marched  through  was  not  a  perfect 
level,  but  had  frequent  raisings  in  it  seven  or  eight 
feet  higher  than  the  common  level  (which  was  covered 
with  water),  and  as  these  raisings  general  run  in 
an  oblique  direction  to  the  town,  we  took  advantage 
of  one  of  them,  marching  through  the  water  under 
it,  which  completely  prevented  our  being  numbered. 
But  our  colors  showed  considerably  above  the  heights, 
as  they  were  fixed  on  long  poles  procured  for  the 
purpose,  and  at  a  distance  made  no  despicable  appear 
ance  ;  and  as  our  young  Frenchmen  had,  while  we  lay 
on  the  Warriors'  islands,  decoyed  and  taken  several 
fowlers  with  their  horses,  officers  were  mounted  on 
these  horses,  and  rode  about  more  completely  to  de 
ceive  the  enemy.  In  this  manner  all  moved,  and  di 
rected  our  march  in  such  a  way  as  to  suffer  it  to  be 
dark  before  we  had  advanced  more  than  half  way  to 
the  town.  We  then  suddenly  altered  our  direction  and 
crossed  ponds  where  they  could  not  have  suspected 
us."* 

At  eight  o'clock,  the  Colonel  reached  the  lower 
end  of  the  town,  going  at  once  to  the  houses  of 
Major  Legras  and  Captain  Bossoron.f  He  then  took 
possession  of  the  main  street,  putting  out  his  guards 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
146-148. 

f  Chesne's  Account  —  Haldimand  MSS.  (See  Appendix 
to  our  narrative,  Note  XCV.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      331 

without  the  least  molestation,*  and  his  long  and  toil 
some  march  was  ended. 

"The  difficulties  and  dangers  of  Colonel  Clark's 
march  from  the  Illinois,"  afterward  wrote  Hamilton, 
"were  such  as  required  great  courage  to  encounter  and 
great  perseverance  to  overcome. "f  True ;  but,  in  this 
admission,  was  there  not  more  of  an  attempt  on  the 
part  of  the  Lieutenant  Governor  to  justify  himself  in 
not  leaving  Vincennes  immediately  after  the  surren 
der  by  Helm  of  Fort  Sackville,  than  to  praise  the 
American  commander  ?  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  certain 
the  march  was  a  remarkable  achievement.  Could  the 
Colonel  have  foreseen  the  obstacles  to  be  overcome, 
the  undertaking,  doubtless,  would  never  have  been 
resolved  upon.  There  were  perils  on  every  side.  There 
were  raging  floods  encountered,  to  combat  which 
seemed  more  like  acts  of  reckless  desperation  than 
the  determinations  (which  they  were)  of  a  cool  and 
undaunted  courage.  Such  resolution,  in  the  face  of 
almost  interminable  obstructions,  the  world  has  sel 
dom  witnessed. $ 

*  Clark's  Journal — Haldimand  MSS. 
t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
t  See  Appendix,  Note  XCV,  as  to  B.  J.  Lossing's  opinion 
of  the  difficulties  encountered. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

IT  was  one  of  the  strange  incidents  connected  with 
the  sudden  and  unexpected  appearance  of  Clark's 
little  army  around  Fort  Sackville  on  the  evening 
of  the  twenty-third  of  February,  that  the  pioneers 
inside  the  fortification  had  already  obtained  knowledge 
of  the  approach  of  their  friends.  Some  of  those  de 
prived  of  their  liberty  were  residents  of  Vincennes  who 
seemed  to  Hamilton  not  only  indifferent  and  lukewarm 
in  their  feelings  toward  him,  but  as  absolutely  danger 
ous  to  the  cause  of  Britain.  They  had  been  taken  in 
side  the  fort  and  were  still  held  in  custody.  One  of 
these  was  Moses  Henry,  whose  wife  had  subsequently 
been  granted  permission  to  supply  her  husband  with 
provisions  whenever  she  desired,  from  their  home  in 
the  village.  Soon  after  the  arrival  in  Vincennes  of  the 
bearer  of  the  Colonel's  note  to  the  inhabitants,  Mrs. 
Henry  visited  her  husband  ostensibly  to  take  him  some 
supplies,  but  really  to  whisper  to  him  the  news  of  the 
approach  of  Clark,  —  the  information  having  been  con 
veyed  by  the  messenger  at  once  to  persons  whom  he 
met  upon  his  reaching  town,  from  one  of  whom,  she 
had  obtained  it.  Henry  was  not  long  in  conveying 
the  intelligence  to  his  fellow-prisoners,  "which  gave 
them  much  pleasure,  particularly  Captain  Helm."* 
But  all  this  was  unknown  as  yet  to  the  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor. 

No  sooner  had  Lieutenant  Bayley  reached  a  posi 
tion  within  gunshot  of  the  fort,  than  he  opened  fire 

*  Clark's  Memoir —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  149. 
Some   additional   particulars   not   mentioned   by   Clark,   I   am 
indebted  for  to  a  well-authenticated  tradition. 
(332) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      333 

upon  it.  'The  garrison,"  wrote  Clark  to  Mason,  "had 
so  little  suspicion  of  what  was  to  happen  that  they  did 
not  believe  the  firing  was  from  an  enemy  until  a  man 
was  wounded  through  the  ports  (which  happened  the 
third  or  fourth  shot)  ;  they  supposing  it  to  be  some 
drunken  Indians.  It  was  now  clear  to  Hamilton  that 
an  enemy  was  assailing  his  post.*  In  a  few  moments, 
Dr.  McBeath,  who  happened  to  be  in  the  house  of  one 
of  the  citizens  of  the  town  at  the  time  and  who  was 
told  that  Clark  had  arrived  with  five  hundred  men, 
"pushed  to  get  to  the  gate"  of  the  fort,  rushed  in 
(although  narrowly  escaping  with  his  life),  and  re 
ported  to  the  Lieutenant  Governor  the  particulars  as 
given  to  him  by  the  woman  where  he  had  been  visit 
ing.*  The  astonishment  of  the  commandant  may  be 
imagined. f 

"We  now  found,"  subsequently  wrote  Clark,  "that 
the  garrison  had  known  nothing  of  us ;  that,  having 
finished  the  fort  that  evening,  they  had  amused  them 
selves  at  different  games,  and  had  just  retired  before 
my  letter  arrived,  as  it  was  near  roll  call.  The  placard 
being  made  public,  many  of  the  inhabitants  were  afraid 
to  show  themselves  out  of  the  houses  for  fear  of  giv 
ing  offense,  and  not  one  dare  give  information.  Our 
friends  flew  to  the  commons  and  other  convenient 
places  to  view  the  pleasing  sight.  This  was  observed 
from  the  garrison  and  the  reason  asked,  but  a  satis 
factory  excuse  was  gjven ;  and  as  a  part  of  the  town 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
(See  as  to  a  fiction  concerning  Clark's  appearance  in  Vin- 
cennes,  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  XCVI.) 

t  See,  for  a  ridiculous  tradition  concerning  the  first  firing 
at  the  fort,  Appendix  to  our  narrative  XCVII. 


334       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

lay  between  our  line  of  march  and  the  garrison,  we 
could  not  be  seen  by  the  sentinels  an  the  walls."* 

It  was  not  long  after  Clark  arrived  in  the  village 
before  he  "reconnoitered  about  to  find  a  place  to  throw 
up  an  entrenchment."  One  was  soon  found,  and  Cap 
tain  Bowman's  company  set  at  work,  —  the  trench  to 
be  thrown  up  across  the  main  street,  about  two  hundred 
yards  from  the  fort  gatef 

When  Hamilton  became  fully  assured  of  the  pres 
ence  of  an  enemy  and  that  the  attack  was  by  hostile 
riflemen,  he  gave  orders  to  have  the  fire  returned  by 
his  garrison.  "But  the  enemy,"  he  declares,  "had  a 
great  advantage  from  their  rifles  and  the  cover  of  the 
church,  houses  and  barns. "J 

So  soon  as  the  firing  had  commenced  on  both 
sides,  Clark's  two  divisions  united  —  the  second  join 
ing  the  first.  The  Colonel  found  that  what  had  been 
told  him  by  his  friendly  prisoner  before  reaching  the 
town  concerning  the  presence  in  the  village  of  a  con 
siderable  number  of  Indians  was  true ;  but  Hamilton's 
dusky  allies  had  not  at  any  time  been  permitted  (if, 
indeed,  they  had  desired  it)  to  take  up  their  quarters 
inside  the  fort,  but  had  been  freely  admitted  within 
the  pickets  when  councils  were  holden ;  so,  on  hearing 
the  firing,  those  who  remained  firm  to  the  British  cause 
easily  made  their  escape  out  of  town.  Of  these  sav 
ages  were  two  Ottawa  chiefs  and  "the  King  of  the 
Hurons"  -  —  that  is,  the  head  chief  of  the  Wyandots 
(not  only  of  those  living  near  Detroit  but  of  those 
whose  homes  were  upon  the  Sandusky) — the  same 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  148. 
t  Not  "first  gate"  as  printed  in  "Bowman's  Journal"  — 
-  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  105. 

|  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       335 

chief  whose  Indian  name  was  Dunqua,  but  who  was 
known  to  the  English  as  the  Half  King.  Captain 
Chesne,  the  interpreter,  who,  ever  since  his  arrival 
with  Hamilton  had  lived  in  the  village  so  as  always  to 
be  near  the  Indians,  not  being  able  after  Lieutenant 
Bailey  had  reached  the  fort  and  opened  fire,  to  get  in 
side  of  it,  fled  also  with  the  before  mentioned  savages. 
None  of  the  inhabitants  of  Vincennes  left  until  the  next 
day,  and  then  so  far  as  is  known,  but  two  families. 

As  might  be  supposed,  ammunition  was,  at  this 
juncture,  scarce  with  the  Americans,  as  most  of  the 
stores  were  on  board  the  Willing.  Fortunately,  how 
ever,  when  Hamilton  undertook  to  have  all  the  powder 
and  ball  in  the  town  brought  into  the  fort  for  the 
king's  use  (giving  the  owners  bills  for  the  same),  Le- 
gras,  Bosseron  and  others  buried  most  of  theirs,  which 
they  now  produced,  and  the  Colonel  found  himself 
well  supplied.* 

It  was  soon  discovered  by  Clark  that,  about  one 
hundred  Kickapoos  and  Piankeshaws  had  not  fled  the 
town  —  that,  in  reality,  they  were  friends.  They  im 
mediately  armed  themselves  and  offered  their  services 
in  assailing  the  fort.  The  Colonel  requested  them  to 
remain  quiet  until  morning,  when  he  would  gladly  ac 
cept  them  as  his  allies.  "I  thanked  the  chief  for  his 
intended  service,"  says  Clark ;  "told  him  the  ill  conse 
quence  of  our  people  being  mingled  in  the  dark ;  and 
that  they  might  lay  in  their  quarters  until  daylight. 
He  approved  of  it,  and  sent  off  his  troops,  and  appeared 
to  be  much  elevated  himself,  staying  with  me  and  giv 
ing  me  all  the  information  he  could. "f 


*  Appendix,  Note  XCVIII. 

t  Clark    to    Mason  —  Clark's    Campaign    in    the    Illinois, 


p.  69. 


336       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

So,  also,  in  after  years,  Clark  wrote:  "The  To 
bacco's  son  being  in  town  with  a  number  of  warriors, 
immediately  mustered  them  and  let  us  know  he 
wished  to  join  us,  saying  that  by  the  morning  he  would 
have  a  hundred  men.  He  received  for  answer  that  we 
thanked  him  for  his  friendly  disposition ;  and  as  we 
were  sufficiently  strong  ourselves,  we  wished  him  to 
desist,  and  that  we  would  counsel  on  the  subject  in  the 
morning ;  and  as  we  knew  there  were  a  number  of  In 
dians  in  and  near  the  town  that  were  our  enemies,  some 
confusion  might  happen  if  our  men  should  mix  in  the 
dark ;  but  hoped  we  might  be  favored  with  his  counsel 
and  company  during  the  night,  —  which  was  agreeable 
to  him."* 

It  was  not  very  long  after  the  two  divisions  of 
Clark's  force  had  united  before  the  Virginia  riflemen 
effectively  annoyed  the  enemy,  parties  being  sent  by 
Clark  for  that  purpose,  who  were  posted  within  from 
eighty  to  one  hundred  yards  of  the  fort  behind  houses, 
barns,  palings  and  ditches,  —  only  being  dislodged  by 
the  artillery  (as  Hamilton,  afterward,  rightfully  de 
clared)  from  the  church  and  some  of  the  nearest 
housesf  was  "fine  sport"  -  —  this  firing  on  the  fort  — 
"for  the  'Sons  of  Liberty.'  "J 

It  was  now  that  the  American  commandant  heard 
of  the  sending  out,  by  Hamilton,  of  Captain  Lamothe 
and  party,  about  three  hours  before,  on  their  reconnoit- 
ering  expedition.  The  Captain  had  got  some  miles 
from  the  fort  when  the  high  waters  prevented  him 
pursuing  his  route  farther.  Upon  his  return,  on  reach 
ing  "the  commons  behind  the  town,"  he  and  his  party 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  149. 
t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
J  Bowman's  Journal  of  Feb.  23,  1779. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      337 

"heard,  to  their  great  surprise,  a  discharge  of  mus 
ketry  ;  they  did  not  know  what  could  be  the  occasion" 
of  it.  Meeting  some  men  from  the  village,  they  were 
assured  the  "rebels"  had  laid  close  seige  to  the  fort. 
Thereupon,  they  took  refuge  in  a  barn  and  awaited 
further  news.*  Meanwhile,  Clark  had  sent  out  a  de 
tachment  to  intercept  the  party,  —  and  Maisonville  and 
another  were  captured  and  brought  into  town.f  They 
were  questioned  as  to  the  place  of  concealment  of  La- 
mothe  and  his  party.  Both  declared  their  ignorance 
as  to  where  they  might  be  found.  Maisonville  was 
threatened  to  be  hanged  if  he  did  not  at  once  reveal 
where  they  were;  but  he  still  protested  he  did  not 
know.  He  was  then  pinioned,  a  halter  put  around  his 
neck,  when  he  was  led  to  an  improvised  gallows ;  but 
he  was  saved  by  the  town's  people  from  death.  He  was 
then  placed  in  a  chair,  and  at  Clark's  order,  says  Ham 
ilton,  was  partially  scalped,  when  he  was  again  saved, 
this  time  by  "rebel"  intercession.  It  is  altogether  prob- 

*  Schieffelin :  Loose  Notes.  In  Hamilton's  letter  to 
Haldimand  of  July  6,  1781  (Germain  MSS.),  is  the  follow 
ing  :  "They  [Lamothe  and  his  men]  lost  their  way  —  night 
coming  on  —  and  were  only  apprised  by  the  firing  of  cannon 
at  the  fort,  that  it  was  invested."  It  is  also  recorded  in 
"Bowman's  Journal"  in  the  Department  of  State  MSS.  and 
in  the  one  in  print  (Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  105), 
upon  hearsay,  that  hearing  the  firing  was  the  cause  of 
Lamothe's  return.  But  Schieffelin  (in  this  case  the  better 
authority)  clearly  disproves  this. 

f  Clark,  on  the  twenty-third,  records  in  his  Journal  that 
Maisonville  and  one  man  were  taken,  and  "Bowman's  Journal" 
corroborates  this.  Hamilton  only  speaks  of  Maisonville  being 
captured,  —  "having  been  betrayed  and  delivered  to  the  rebels 
by  his  own  cousin."  (Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781. 
—  Germain  MSS.) 

22 


338       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

able  that  Maisonville  and  the  other  prisoner  had,  in 
the  darkness,  as  they  were  returning,  become  separated 
from  the  balance  of  the  party,  and  could  not,  therefore, 
give  any  information  as  to  where  their  companions 
were.* 

The  American  commander,  in  a  general  descrip 
tion  given  not  long  after,  of  affairs  during  the  night, 
says  he  made  the  attack  on  the  fort  at  seven  o'clock,, 
before  they  knew  of  his  coming;  and  that  he  had  no 
expectation  of  gaining  it  until  the  arrival  of  his  artil 
lery.  The  moon  set  at  about  one  o'clock,  and  he  then, 
in  the  darkness,  had  an  entrenchment  thrown  up  within 
rifle-shot  of  the  strongest  battery  of  the  enemy,  and, 
as  he  declares,  "poured  such  a  shower  of  well-directed 
balls  into  their  ports,  that  -we  silenced  two  pieces  of 
cannon  in  fifteen  minutes,  without  getting  a  man 

hurt/'t 

"In  a  few  hours,"  adds  the  Colonel  concerning  the 
seige,  in  another  account,  "I  found  my  prize  sure, —  I 
was  certain  of  taking  every  man  that  I  could  have 
wished  for,  being  the  whole  of  those  that  incited  the 
Indians  to  war.  All  my  past  sufferings  vanished. 
Never  was  a  man  more  happy.  There  was  wanted  no 
encouragement  from  any  officer  to  inflame  our  troops 
with  a  martial  spirit.  The  knowledge  of  the  person 
they  attacked  and  the  thoughts  of  their  massacred 

*  Appendix,  Note  XCIX. 

t  Clark  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  April  29,  1779  — 
Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222  n.  The  Colonel  says  that 
"the  town  immediately  surrendered  with  joy"  —  that  is,  they 
welcomed  the  Americans  to  the  place ;  "and,"  he  adds  "as 
sisted  in  the  siege."  But  there  was  no  assistance,  to  speak 
of,  until  the  next  morning.  There  was  a  continued  fire  on 
both  sides,"  is  the  Colonel's  farther  declaration,  "for  eighteen 
hours."  This  is  error,  as  will  be  presently  seen. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      339 

friends  were  sufficient.  I  knew  that  I  could  not  afford 
to  lose  men ;  and  I  took  the  greatest  care  of  them  I 
possibly  could ;  at  the  same  time,  I  encouraged  them  to 
be  daring  but  prudent.  Every  place  near  the  fort  that 
could  cover  them  was  crowded,  and  a  very  heavy  firing 
during  the  night  was  kept  up.  I  had  flung  up  a  con 
siderable  entrenchment  before  the  gate  [of  the  fort] 
where  I  intended  to  plant  my  artillery  when  it  arrived 
[on  the  Willing]."* 

But  more  circumstantial  is  the  portrayal  by  Clark 
of  the  beginning  of  the  siege,  as  made  by  him  years 
after.  "The  garrison,"  he  wrote,  "was  soon  completely 
surrounded,  and  the  firing  continued  without  inter 
mission  (except  about  fifteen  minutes  a  little  before 
day),  until  about  nine  o'clock  the  following  morning. 
It  was  kept  up  by  the  whole  of  the  troops  —  joined  by 
a  few  of  the  young  men  of  the  town  who  got  permis 
sion  —  except  fifty  men  kept  as  a  reserve.  ...  I 
had  made  myself  fully  acquainted  with  the  situation  of 
the  fort  and  town,  and  the  ports  relative  to  each.  The 
cannon  of  the  garrison  were  on  the  upper  floors  of 
strong  blockhouses  at  each  angle  of  the  fort  eleven 
feet  above  the  surface ;  and  the  ports  so  badly  cut  that 
many  of  our  troops  lay  under  the  fire  of  them  within 
twenty  or  thirty  yards  of  the  walls.  They  [the  garri 
son]  did  no  damage  except  to  the  buildings  of  the 
town,  some  of  which  they  much  shattered ;  and  their 
musketry  in  the  dark  employed  against  woodsmen  cov 
ered  by  houses,  palings,  ditches  and  the  banks  of  the 
river,  was  but  of  little  avail  against  us  and  did  us  no 
injury  except  wounding  a  man  or  two." 

*  Clark    to    Mason  —  Clark's    Campaign    in    the    Illinois, 
p.  70. 


340       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"As  we  could  not  afford  to  lose  men,"  continues 
Clark,  "great  care  was  taken  to  preserve  them  suffi 
ciently  covered,  and  keep  up  a  hot  fire  in  order  to  in 
timidate  the  enemy  as  well  as  to  destroy  them.  The 
embrasures  of  their  cannon  were  frequently  shut,  for 
our  riflemen  finding  the  true  direction  of  them  would 
pour  in  such  vollies  when  they  were  opened  that  the 
men  could  not  stand  to  their  guns  —  seven  or  eight  of 
them  in  a  short  time  got  cut  down.  Our  troops  would 
frequently  abuse  the  enemy  in  order  to  aggravate  them 
to  open  their  ports  and  fire  their  cannon  that  they 
might  have  the  pleasure  of  shooting  them  with  their 
rifles  —  fifty  of  which,  perhaps,  would  be  leveled  the 
moment  a  port  flew  open ;  and  I  believe  that  if  they 
had  stood  at  their  artillery,  the  greater  part  of  them 
would  have  been  destroyed  in  the  course  of  the  night, 
as  the  larger  portion  of  our  men  lay  within  thirty  yards 
of  the  walls,  and  in  a  few  hours  were  covered  equally 
to  those  within  the  fort,  and  much  more  experienced 
in  that  mode  of  fighting. 

"Sometimes  an  irregular  fire  as  hot  as  possible," 
is  the  further  language  of  Clark,  "was  kept  up  from 
different  directions  for  a  few  minutes,  and  then  only 
a  continual  scattering  one  at  the  ports  as  usual ;  and  a 
great  noise  and  laughter  immediately  commenced  in 
different  parts  of  the  town,  by  the  reserved  parties,  as 
if  they  had  only  fired  on  the  fort  a  few  minutes  for 
amusement,  and  as  if  those  firing  at  the  walls  were  only 
regularly  relieved.  Conduct  similar  to  this  kept  the 
garrison  constantly  alarmed.  They  did  not  know  what 
moment  they  might  be  stormed  or  [blown  up]  as  they 
could  plainly  discover  that  we  had  flung  up  some  en 
trenchments  across  the  streets  and  appeared  to  be  very 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       341 

busy  under  the  bank  of  the  river,  which  was  within 
thirty  feet  of  the  fort.  The  situation  of  the  magazine 
we  knew  well.  Captain  Bowman  began  some  works  in 
order  to  blow  it  up  in  case  our  artillery  should  arrive ; 
but  as  we  knew  that  we  were  daily  liable  to  be  over 
powered  by  the  numerous  bands  of  Indians  on  the  river 
in  case  they  had  again  joined  the  enemy  (the  certainty 
of  which  we  were  acquainted  with),  we  resolved  to 
lose  no  time,  but  to  get  the  fort  in  our  possession  as 
soon  as  possible.  If  the  vessel  [the  Willing}  did  not 
arrive  before  the  ensuing  night  we  resolved  to  under 
mine  the  fort,  and  fixed  on  the  spot  and  plan  of  ex 
ecuting  this  work,  which  we  intended  to  commence 
the  next  day."* 

Hamilton's  officers  inside  the  fort  were  exposed 
to  the  fire  of  Clark's  riflemen  as  they  occupied  tents 
and  had  ever  since  getting  possession  of  the  place  — 
the  picketing  of  the  fortification  being  so  poorly  set 
up  that  one  might  pass  the  hand  clinched  between  the 
uprights.  "Though  the  night  was  dark,"  says  Hamil 
ton,  "we  had  a  sergeant  matross  and  five  men  wounded. 
The  weather  was  still  so  cold,  we  were  obliged  to 
bring  the  wounded  into  our  own  quarters. "f 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
149-151.  But,  in  this  relation,  there  is  exaggeration,  and 
some  errors  both  by  inference  and  direct  statement,  which 
are  manifest  from  what  has  already  been  shown  and  what  will 
be  presently  given.  Clark's  language  I  have  not  followed  in 
all  instances  literally,  but  have  preserved  his  meaning  strictly. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
The  "sergeant  matross"  spoken  of  by  Hamilton,  is  mentioned 
in  Chesne's  Account  as  the  "master  gunner."  Chesne  was 
told  that  this  soldier  and  five  others  had  been  killed;  but 
they  were,  as  stated  by  Hamilton,  only  wounded. 


342       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Throughout  the  night  the  inhabitants  of  Vincennes 
remained,  most  of  them,  in  their  houses,  giving  the 
Americans  no  trouble.  Colonel  Clark  had  little  or  no 
fear  of  hostility  on  their  part. 

Lamothe  and  his  men  remained  concealed  in  the 
barn  where  they  had  taken  refuge,  until  daylight, 
when  they  made  a  rush  for  the  fort  and  got  inside 
without  the  loss  of  a  man.*  Clark  says,  in  writing  a 
few  months  afterward  of  their  successful  exploit,  that 
he  was  convinced  they  would  make  off  at  daybreak  if 
they  could  not  rejoin  their  friends ;  so,  finding  all  en 
deavors  fruitless  to  take  them  (ending,  as  these  efforts 
had,  in  the  capture  only  of  Maisonville  and  one  other), 
he  withdrew  his  troops  a  little  farther  from  the  pickets 
in  order  to  give  them  an  opportunity  to  get  in.  This 
Lamothe  accomplished  "much  to  his  credit,"  the  Colo 
nel  declares,  "and  my  satisfaction,  as  I  preferred  the 
garrison  should  receive  that  reinforcement  rather  than 
he  and  his  men  should  be  at  large  among  the  sava- 
ges."t 

The  account  given  by  Hamilton  of  Lamothe's 
reaching  the  inside  of  the  fort  shows  he  had  no  sus 
picion  of  Clark's  design:  "We  despaired  of  Captain 
Lamothe's  party  regaining  the  fort ;  but,  to  our  great 
surprise  and  joy,  about  half  an  hour  before  sunrise, 
they  appeared  and  got  into  the  fort  over  the  stockades 
(which  were  upright  and  eleven  feet  out  of  the  ground) 
with  their  arms  in  their  hands.  Two  Canadians  of  his 
company  had  deserted  the  preceding  night. "J 

*  Schieffelin's  Loose  Notes  —  Magazine  of  American  His 
tory,  vol.  I,  p.  187. 

t  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p. 
71.  Compare  "Bowman's  Journal"  under  date  of  Feb.  23d. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
Hamilton,  in  the  same  letter,  speaks  of  Lamothe  and  his  men 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       343 

In  after  years,  in  recording  his  recollections  of  the 
events  connected  with  the  successful  endeavor  of  La- 
mothe  to  get  inside  the  fort,  Clark  says :  "As  almost 
the  whole  of  the  persons  who  were  most  active  in  the 
Department  of  the  Detroit  were  either  in  the  fort  or 
with  Captain  Lamothe,  I  got  extremely  uneasy  for  fear 
that  he  would  not  fall  into  our  power,  —  knowing  that 
he  would  go  off,  if  he  could  not  get  into  the  fort  in  the 
course  of  the  night.  Finding  that,  without  some  un 
foreseen  accident,  the  fort  must  inevitably  be  ours,  and 
that  a  reinforcement  of  twenty  men,  although  consid 
erable  to  them,  would  not  be  of  great  moment  to  us  in 
the  present  situation  of  affairs,  and  knowing  we  had 
weakened  them  by  killing  or  wounding  many  of  their 
gunners,  after  some  deliberation  we  concluded  to  risk 
the  reinforcement  in  preference  of  his  going  again 
among  the  Indians ;  the  garrison  had  at  least  a  month's 
provisioning,  and  if  they  could  hold  out,  in  the  course 
of  that  time  he  might  do  us  much  damage  [outside  the 
fortification]." 

"A  little  before  day,"  adds  Clark,  "the  troops 
were  withdrawn  from  their  positions  about  the  fort, 
except  a  few  parties  of  observation,  and  the  firing  to 
tally  ceased.  Orders  were  given  in  case  of  Lamothe's 
approach,  not  to  alarm  or  fire  on  him,  without  a  cer 
tainty  of  killing  or  taking  the  whole.  In  less  than  a 

"returning  to  the  village,  and  finding  it  impossible  to  make 
their  way  good  [into  the  fort],  they  concealed  themselves  in 
a  barn,  sending  from  time  to  time,  one  of  their  number  to 
explore  and  make  report,  but  as  they  employed  Canadians, 
none  of  them  returned."  Now,  it  is  evident,  that  none  were 
sent  "to  explore  and  make  report ;"  and  that  Maisonville  and 
his  companion  were  the  "two  Canadians,"  that  he  speaks  of 
(though  erroneously)  as  having  deserted. 


344       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

quarter  of  an  hour  he  passed  within  ten  feet  of  an 
officer  and  a  party  that  lay  concealed.  Ladders  were 
flung  over  to  them  [by  the  garrison],  and  as  they 
mounted  them  our  party  shouted.  Many  of  them  fell 
from  the  top  of  the  walls  —  some  within  and  others 
back ;  but,  as  they  were  not  fired  on,  they  all  got  over, 
much  to  the  joy  of  their  friends.  But,  on  considering 
the  matter,  they  must  have  been  convinced  that  it  was 
a  scheme  of  ours  to  let  them  in,  and  that  we  were  so 
strong  as  to  care  little  about  them  or  of  the  manner 
of  their  getting  into  the  garrison."* 

Captain  Chesne  and  the  three  chiefs  who  had  so 
unceremoniously  fled  on  Clark's  arrival  secreted  them 
selves  in  a  wood  about  a  mile  and  a  half  out  of  the 
town,  where  they  heard  "a  smart  firing  all  night,  and 
now  and  then,  a  great  gun  from  the  fort."  About 
eleven  o'clock,  they  attempted  to  enter  the  village, 
"but  riot  finding  it  practicable,  they  returned  again  to 
the  wood ;  and,  in  the  morning,  they  were  joined  by 
Petit  Gres,  chief  of  the  Miamis,  and  three  of  his  peo 
ple. "f  Chesne,  so  soon  as  he  had  fully  satisfied  him 
self  of  the  true  state  of  affairs  started  for  Detroit  to 
bear  the  news  to  Captain  Lermoult.  That  he  made 
quick  time  on  his  return  is  not  to  be  doubted. f 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
151,  152.  But,  when  he  says  the  Americans  knew  that  their 
firing  "had  weakened  them  [the  enemy]  by  killing  or  wound 
ing  many  of  their  gunners,"  Clark  was  drawing,  certainly,  on 
his  imagination.  And,  as  to  the  garrison  "having,  on  consider 
ing  the  matter,"  "been  convinced  that  it  was  a  scheme"  of  the 
Americans  "to  let  them  in,"  it  is  only  necessary  to  refer  to 
Hamilton's  letter  to  Haldimand  of  July  6,  1781  (Germain 
MSS.),  to  refute  the  idea. 

t  Chesne' s  Account  having  been  verbally  given  to  Captain 
Lernoult  of  course  is  not  dated;  but  from  a  letter  the  latter 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       345 

Immediately  after  the  return  of  Lamothe  and  his 
party,  Hamilton  perceiving  the  works  thrown  up  by 
Clark,  began  to  play  his  small  arms  very  briskly  but 
could  not  bring  his  cannon  to  bear  on  them ;  so  the 
firing  from  the- fort  was  but  slack  after  sunrise.* 

About  sixty  of  the  inhabitants  of  Vincennes  now 
joined  the  Colonel's  force,f  behaving,  in  general,  ex 
ceedingly  well.  The  Wabash  Indians  were  also  per 
mitted,  at  this  juncture,  to  assist  the  Americans.^ 

After  Lamothe's  return,  "the  firing,"  says  Clark, 
"immediately  commenced  on  both  sides  with  double 
vigor;  and  I  believe  that  more  noise  could  not  have 
been  made  by  the  same  number  of  men  —  their  shouts 
could  not  be  heard  for  the  firearms ;  but  a  continual 
blaze  was  kept  around  the  garrison,  without  much 
being  done,  until  about  daybreak  [sunrise],  when  our 
troops  were  drawn  off  to  posts  prepared  for  them, 
about  sixty  or  seventy  yards  from  the  fort.  .  .  To 
have  stood  to  their  cannon  would  have  destroyed  their 
men  without  a  probability  of  doing  much  service.  Our 
situation  was  nearly  similar.  It  would  have  been  im 
prudent  in  either  party  to  have  wasted  their  men,  with 
out  some  decisive  stroke  required  it.  Thus  the  attack 

wrote  to  Col.  .Bolton  we  can  readily  see  that  the  escaped 
Frenchman  did  not  tarry  on  his  way  back. 

*  Clark's  Journal  —  Haldimand  MSS.  Hamilton  to  Hald- 
imand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 

f  Schieffelin :  Loose  Notes.  Hamilton  to  Haldimand, 
July  6,  1781.  — Haldimand  MSS.  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's 
Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  71. 

J  This  is  to  be  inferred  from  what  subsequently  took 
place,  as  given  in  detail  by  Clark  to  Mason.  All  contemporary 
accounts  are  silent  as  to  the  aid  given  Clark  by  these  Indians. 


346       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

continued  until  about  nine  o'clock  on  the  morning  of 
the  twenty-fourth.*" 

Clark  some  time  before  eight  o'clock  in  the  fore 
noon  had  received  from  the  inhabitants  of  Vincennes 
such  a  description  of  the  prisoners  lately  brought  into 
the  fort  from  the  Ohio  river  by  Maisonville  as  in 
duced  him  to  believe  they  were  an  express  from  Wil- 
liamsburg  on  their  way  to  Kaskaskia  with  papers  and 
letters  to  him  from  Governor  Henry,  of  Virginia,  (but 
in  this  he  was  mistaken  as  he  afterward  discovered)  ; 
so,  at  the  hour  just  named,  he  ordered  the  firing  to 
cease,  intending  to  send  a  flag  to  Hamilton  demanding 
a  surrender,  at  the  same  time  to  give  him  to  under 
stand  that,  if  he  destroyed  any  papers  or  letters  taken 
from  prisoners,  or  injured  the  houses  of  the  inhabit 
ants  with  his  artillery,  punishment  of  the  severest  kind 
might  be  expected  in  the  event  the  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  should  be  captured. f 

The  determination  of  the  American  commander 
was  now  carried  out.  He  at  once  wrote  to  Hamilton : 

"SiR :  —  In  order  to  save  yourself  from  the  impending 
storm  that  now  threatens  you,  I  order  you  immediately  to 
surrender  yourself  up,  with  all  your  garrison,  stores,  etc., 
etc. ;  for,  if  I  am  obliged  to  storm,  you  may  depend  on  such 
treatment  [as  is]  justly  due  to  a  murderer.  Beware  of  de 
stroying  stores  of  any  kind,  or  any  papers  or  letters  that  are 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  152. 

f  Both  Clark  and  Hamilton  declare  the  firing  ceased  at 
eight  o'clock  (Clark's  Journal,  Feb.  24,  1779  —  Haldimand 
MSS. ;  also,  his  letter  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the 
Illinois,  p.  71;  and  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781- 
Germain  MSS.)  :  now,  as  it  began  about  seven  o'clock  the 
previous  evening,  it  could  not  have  been  continuous  for  eigh 
teen  hours,  as  stated  by  the  Colonel  in  his  letter  of  April  29, 
1779.  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia.  "Bowman's  Journal"  says, 
by  inference,  that  the  firing  ceased  about  nine  o'clock. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       347 

in  your  possession,  or  hurting  one  house  in  the  town;    for, 
by  Heavens,  if  you  do,  there  shall  be  no  mercy  shown  you. 
"(Signed)  "G.  R.  CLARK."* 

This  letter  was  then  sent  to  the  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor. 

Clark's  subsequent  recollection  of  the  incident 
agrees  with  his  statement  made  a  short  time  after  the 
event  occurred  :  "Learning  that  the  two  prisoners  they 
had  brought  in  the  day  before  had  a  considerable  num 
ber  of  letters  with  them,  I  supposed  it  an  express  that 
we  expected  about  this  time,  which  I  knew  to  be  of  the 
greatest  moment  to  us  as  we  had  not  received  one  since 
our  arrival  in  the  country;  and  not  being  fully  ac 
quainted  with  the  character  of  our  enemy,  we  were 
doubtful  that  those  papers  might  be  destroyed,  —  to 
prevent  which  I  sent  a  flag  [with  the  letter]  demand 
ing  the  garrison. "f 

The  troops  of  Clark's  command  took  advantage 
of  the  occasion  to  provide  themselves  with  breakfast, — 
"it  being  the  only  meal  of  victuals  since  the  eight- 
eenth.J" 

"About  eight  o'clock,"  are  the  words  of  Hamil 
ton,  "a  flag  of  truce  from  the  rebels  appeared,  carried 
by  Nicolas  Cardinal,  a  captain  of  the  militia  of  Vin- 
cennes,  who  delivered  me  a  letter  from  Colonel  Clark 
requiring  me  to  surrender  at  discretion,  adding,  with 

*  "Bowman's  Journal"  in  the  Department  of  State  MSS. 
As  printed  in  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois  (pp.  105,  106), 
the  words  "or  hurting  one  house  in  the  town,"  are  omitted. 
But  in  printing  the  letter,  Dillon,  in  his  History  of  Indiana, 
pp.  152,  153,  gives  them.  They  are  likewise  retained  in  Clark's 
Journal,  in  the  Haldimand  MSS.,  where  he  speaks  of  the 
letter. 

t  Clark's  Memoir—  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  152. 

%  "Bowman's  Journal"  of  the  24th  of  Feb. 


348       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

an  oath,  that  if  I  destroyed  any  stores  or  papers,  I 
should  be  treated  as  a  murderer.  Having  assembled 
the  officers,  and  read  them  this  letter,  I  told  them  my 
intention  was  to  undergo  any  extremity  rather  than 
trust  to  the  direction  of  such  sort  of  people  as  we  had 
to  deal  with.  They  all  approved  of  the  resolution,  on 
which  I  assembled  the  men  and  informed  them  of  our 
determination.  The  English  assured  me  they  would 
defend  the  King's  colors  to  the  last,  adding  an  homely 
but  hearty  phrase  that  they  would  stick  to  me  as  the 
shirt  to  my  back.  They  then  gave  three  cheers.  The 
French,  on  the  contrary,  hung  their  'heads/'* 

Thereupon  the  Lieutenant  Governor  answered  the 
Colonel's  letter,  sending  (on  a  card)  a  most  manly  and 
soldierly  reply  in  these  words :  "Governor  Hamilton 
begs  leave  to  acquaint  Col.  Clark  that  he  and  his  gar 
rison  are  not  disposed  to  be  awed  into  an  action  un 
worthy  a  British  subject. "f 

"I  then  ordered  out  parties  to  attack  the  fort," 
says  the  American  commander,  "and  the  firing  began 
very  smartly  on  both  sides. "J  "One  of  my  men,"  are 
the  Colonel's  words  in  his  record  of  the  day,  "through 
a  bravery  only  known  but  to  Americans,  walking  care 
lessly  up  the  main  street,  was  slightly  wounded  over 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 

t  "Bowman's  Journal."  See,  also,  Clark  to  Mason  — 
Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  71 ;  Hamilton  to  Haldi 
mand,  July  6,  1781  —  Germain  MSS..  Clark's  Journal,  under 
date  of  Feb.  24,  1779,  in  Haldimand  MSS. ;  also,  Schieffelin's 
Loose  Notes. 

t  Clark's  Journal,  Feb.  24,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 
"Bowman's  Journal"  same  date.  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's 
Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  71.  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July 
6,  1781  — Germain  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       349 


the  left  eye,  but  in  no  wise  dangerous."*  Subsequent 
to  this  Clark  wrote : 

''The  firing  then  commenced  warmly  [and  contin 
ued  so]  for  a  considerable  time;  and  we  were  obliged 
to  be  careful  in  preventing  our  men  from  exposing 
themselves  too  much,  as  they  were  now  much  ani 
mated,  having  been  refreshed  during  the  flag.  They 
frequently  mentioned  their  wishes  to  storm  the  place 
and  put  an  end  to  the  business  at  once.  .  .  The 
firing  was  heavy  through  every  crack  that  could  be 
discovered  in  any  part  of  the  fort."f 

"Lamothe's  volunteers,"  says  the  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor,  ruefully,  "now  began  to  murmur,  saying  it  was 
very  hard  to  be  obliged  to  fight  against  their  country 
men  and  relatives,  who  they  now  perceived  had  joined 
the  Americans.  They  made  half  our  number,  and  after 
such  a  declaration  were  not  to  be  trusted.  The  Eng 
lishmen  wounded  (six  in  number)  were  a  sixth  of 
those  we  could  depend  on,  and  duty  would  every  hour 
fall  heavier  on  the  remaining  few.  Considering  we 
were  at  the  distance  of  six  hundred  miles  from  succor, 
that  if  we  did  not  burn  the  village  we  left  the  enemy 
a  most  advantageous  cover  against  us ;  and  that  if  we 
did,  we  had  nothing  to  expect  after  rejecting  the  first 
terms  but  the  extremity  of  revenge,  I  took  up  the  de 
termination  of  accepting  honorable  terms  if  they  could 
be  procured ;  else,  to  abide  the  worst." 

*  Clark's  Journal,  Feb.  24,  1779.  — *  Haldimand  MSS. 
"Bowman's  Journal"  speaks  of  the  man  being  wounded ;  but 
the  words  there  given  carry  the  idea  that  it  happened  soon 
after  daylight  and  of  course  before  the  Colonel  sent  his  flag 
to  Hamilton.  I  have  followed  Clark's  account,  however,  be 
cause  his  explanation  makes  it  the  more  probable. 

t  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  153. 


350       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"I  stated,"  adds  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  "these 
considerations  to  the  officers  first,  who  allowed  them  to 
be  reasonable,  then  to  the  men,  who  very  reluctantly 
admitted  them.  And  here  I  must  declare  that  if  the 
defense  of  the  fort  had  depended  on  the  spirit  and 
courage  of  the  English  only,  the  rebels  would  have 
lost  their  labor."* 

It  was  now  nearly  mid-day,  and  of  a  sudden  the 
firing  from  the  fort  was  suspended.  It  had  continued 
for  about  two  hours.  The  Colonel  was  determined  to 
listen  to  no  terms  whatever  until  he  was  in  possession 
of  the  fort  —  keeping  only  a  part  of  his  troops  in 
action  while  the  residue  were  making  necessary  prep 
arations  for  an  assault,  in  which  the  inhabitants  of  the 
town  were  willing  to  assist,  but  they  were  not  called 
upon  by  Clark. f  Immediately  following  the  suspen 
sion  of  firing  by  Hamilton  was  the  appearance  of  a 
flag  of  truce  sent  by  him.J 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
Besides  the  six  Englishmen  wounded  there,  was  one  other 
("Bowman's  Journal,"  Department  of  State  MSS.) — prob 
ably  one  of  the  volunteers  (French).  "Bowman's  Journal" 
in  the  Department  of  State  MSS.,  has  this  record  after  men 
tioning  the  capture  of  Maisonville :  "Smart  firing  all  night 
on  both  sides.  The  cannon  played  smartly.  Not  one  of  our 
men  wounded.  Seven  men  in  the  fort  badly  wounded."  But 
the  account  as  printed  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p. 
105  —  leaves  out  much  of  this.  It  says  :  "The  cannon  played 
smartly.  Not  one  of  our  men  wounded.  Men  in  the  fort 
badly  wounded." 

f  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  71. 

J  The  declaration  in  "Bowman's  Journal"  (see  Department 
of  State  MSS.,  also  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  106) 
that  "several  of  the  men  in  the  fort  [being]  wounded  through 
the  port-holes  .  .  .  caused  [Lieutenant]  Governor  Hamil- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      351 

."About  twelve  o'clock  the  firing  from  the  fort 
suspended,"  says  Clark,  "and  I  perceived  a  flag  com 
ing  out.  I  ordered  my  people  to  stop  firing.  .  .  I 
soon  saw  it  was  Captain  Helm."* 

"After  salutations,"  continued  Clark,  "[Captain 
Helm]  informed  me  that  the  purport  of  his  commis 
sion  was,  that  Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton  was  will 
ing  to  surrender  up  the  fort  and  garrison,  provided 
Colonel  Clark  would  grant  him  honorable  terms ;  and 
that  he  begged  the  American  Commander  to  come  into 
the  fort  and  confer  with  him."  "First,  I  desired," 
continues  Clark,  "Captain  Helm  not  to  give  any  in 
telligence  of  Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton's  strength, 
he  (Helm)  being  on  his  parole;  second,  my  answer  to 
Hamilton  was  that  I  should  not  agree  to  any  terms  but 
that  he  should  immediately  surrender  at  discretion.  I 
allowed  him  half  an  hour  to  consider  of  this.  As 
to  my  entering  the  fort,  my  officers  and  men  would  not 
allow  it,  for  it  was  with  difficulty  I  restrained  them 
from  storming  the  garrison.  I  dismissed  Captain  Helm 
with  my  answer."f 

When  the  time  allowed  by  Clark  was  up,  Captain 
Helm  came  back  with  Hamilton's  second  proposals, 
which  were  as  follows  : 

"Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton  proposes  to  Col 
onel  Clark  a  truce  for  three  days,  during  which  time 

ton  to  send  out  a  flag,"  does  not  seem  warranted  by  the  facts ; 
—  certainly  it  is  not  correct  according  to  Hamilton's  statement. 

*  Clark's    Journal  — entry    of    Feb.    24th,    1779.  —  Haldi- ' 
mand   MSS.     The    Colonel   nowhere    else    mentions   the   first 
appearance  of   Captain   Helm   except   incidentally.     Hamilton 
does   not   refer   to   it    directly   or    indirectly   in   his    letter   to 
Haldimand  of  July  6,  1781. 

t  Clark's  Journal  — entry  of  Feb.   24,   1779.— Haldimand 
MSS. 


352       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

he  promises  there  shall  be  no  defensive  works  carried 
on  in  the  garrison,  on  condition  Colonel  Clark  shall 
observe  on  his  part  a  like  cessation  of  any  offensive 
work ;  that  he  wishes  to  confer  with  Colonel  Clark  as 
soon  as  can  be;  and  further  proposes  that  whatever 
may  pass  between  them  two  and  any  other  person  mu 
tually  agreed  upon  to  be  present,  shall  remain  a  secret 
till  matters  be  finally  concluded,  as  he  wishes  whatever 
the  result  of  their  conference  may  be  [it  may  tend]  to 
the  honor  and  credit  of  each  party.  If  Colonel  Clark 
makes  a  difficulty  of  coming  into  the  fort  Lieutenant 
Governor  Hamilton  will  speak  to  him  before  the 

gate."t 

"I  was,"  are  the  subsequent  words  of  Clark,  "at 
a  great  loss  to  conceive  what  reason  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  Hamilton  could  have  for  wishing  a  truce  of  three 
days  on  such  terms  as  he  proposed.  Numbers  said  it 
was  a  scheme  to  get  me  into  their  possession.  I  had 
a  different  opinion  and  no  idea  of  his  possessing  such 
sentiments,  as  an  act  of  that  kind  would  infallibly  ruin 
him.  Although  we  had  the  greatest  reason  to  expect  a 
reinforcement  [from  the  Willing}  in  less  than  three 
days  that  would  at  once  put  an  end  to  the  siege,  I  yet 
did  not  think  it  prudent  to  agree  to  the  proposals. "J 

f  "Bowman's  Journal"  in  the  Department  of  State  MSS. 
(See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  C.) 

J  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
153,  154. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

BEFORE  a  reply  to  Hamilton's  second  message 
was  prepared,  to  be  taken  back  by  Captain 
Helm,  an  incident  occurred  tragic  in  its  results. 
"This  moment,"  wrote  Clark  at  the  time,  "I  received 
intelligence  that  a  party  of  Indians  was  coming  up 
from  the  Falls  [of  the  Ohio]  with  prisoners  or  scalps. 
They  had  been  sent  out  by  Lieutenant  Governor  Ham 
ilton  for  that  purpose."  "My  people,"  he  adds,  "were 
so  enraged  that  they  immediately  intercepted  them."* 
They  consisted  of  eight  Indians  under  the  lead  of 
two  Frenchmen  of  the  fort  garrison.  Three  Indians 
were  killed  on  the  spot  and  four  brought  in  —  one 
only  making  his  escape.  The  two  white  men  were 
also  captured.  The  savages  who  were  made  prisoners 
were  tomahawked  in  the  street  opposite  the  fort  gate 
and  then  thrown  into  the  river.  The  two  Frenchmen 
were  dressed  in  Indian  style,  but  were  seen  to  be  white 
men ;  and  Clark  ordered  them  also  to  be  put  to  death. 
One  had  a  father  present  whose  name  was  St.  Croix, 
who  was  a  lieutenant  in  Captain  McCarty's  company. 
He  recognized  his  son's  voice ;  and  the  parent's  earnest 
solicitations  saved  him.  The  other  was  rescued  by  his 
sister,  "whose  husband  was  a  merchant"  in  Vincennes. 
There  were  but  two  prisoners  brought  in  by  the  war 
party  on  its  return  and  these  fortunately  escaped  death. 
They  were  Frenchmen  and  had  been  hunting  on  the 
Ohio.  They  were,  of  course,  quickly  released. f 

*  Clark's  Journal  —  Haldimand  MSS.  The  Colonel,  in 
speaking  of  the  "Falls,"  refers  to  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio.  "My 
people"  means,  of  course,  his  soldiers. 

t  Appendix,  Note  CI. 

23  (353) 


354      HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Colonel  Clark  now  sent  in  his  reply  by  Captain 
Helm  to  the  commander  of  Fort  Sackville: 

''Colonel  Clark's  compliments  to  Mr.  Hamilton,  and  begs 
leave  to  inform  him  that  Col.  Clark  will  not  agree  to  any 
other  terms  than  that  of  Mr.  Hamilton's  surrendering  himself 
and  garrison  prisoners  at  discretion. 

"If  Mr.  Hamilton  is  desirous  of  a  conference  with  Col. 
Clark,  he  will  meet  him  at  the  church  with  Captain  Helm. 

"Feb'y.  24th,  1779.  "G.  R.  CLARK. 

"L't.  Gov'r.  Henry  Hamilton."* 

Clark  immediately  repaired  to  the  church  to  confer 
with  Hamilton,  where  he  met  him  and  Captain  Helm.f 
"Governor  Hamilton  then  begged  that  I  would  consider 
the  situation  of  both  parties,"  says  the  American  com 
mander;  "that  he  was  willing  to  surrender  the  gar 
rison,  but  was  in  hopes  that  Colonel  Clark  would  let 
him  do  it  with  honor."  "I  answered  him  that  I  had 
been  informed  that  he  had  eight  hundred  men ;  —  'I 
have  not  that  number,^  but  I  came  to  fight  as  many/ 
Governor  Hamilton  then  replied:  'Who  could  have 
given  you  this  false  information?'  'I  am,  sir/  replied 
I,  'well  acquainted  with  your  strength  and  force  and 
am  able  to  take  your  fort;  therefore  I  will  give  you 

*  "Bowman's  Journal"  —  Department  of  State  MSS.  The 
same  Journal,  printed  in  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  107,  leaves  out  the  word  "leave"  after  "begs,"  substitutes 
"he"  for  "Col.  Clark,"  and  has  only  the  initials  "G.  R.  C." 
signed  at  the  bottom.  Clark  in  his  Journal  (Haldimand 
MSS.)  and  in  his  letter  to  Mason  (Clark's  Campaign  in  the 
Illinois,  p.  72)  gives  the  substance  of  his  reply  only. 

t  Clark's  Journal  — entry  of  Feb.  24,  1779  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  Consult,  also,  Clark's  Memoir — Dillon's  Indiana  (ed. 
of  1859),  p.  154.  Except  in  the  two  places  just  cited  Captain 
Helm's  name  is  nowhere  mentioned  as  accompanying  Hamil 
ton  on  this  his  first  interview  with  the  American  commander. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       355 

no  other  terms  but  to  submit  yourself  and  garrison 
to  my  discretion  and  mercy." 

The  rejoinder  of  Hamilton  was  that  his  men  were 
brave  and  willing  to  stand  by  him  to  the  last;  "and 
if,"  he  declared,  "I  cannot  surrender  on  honorable 
terms,  I  will  fight  it  out  to  the  last."  The  answer  to 
this,  by  Clark  was,  that  it  would  give  his  men  infinite 
satisfaction  and  pleasure  to  fight ;  it  was  their  desire. 
The  Lieutenant  Governor  then  left  the  Colonel  "and 
went  a  few  paces  aloof." 

Clark  thus  continues  his  account  of  the  interview : 
"I  told  Captain  Helm  —  'Sir,  you  are  a  prisoner  on 
your  parole;  I  desire  you  to  re-conduct  Lieutenant 
Hamilton  into  the  fort  and  there  remain  Until  I  retake 
you.'  Hamilton  then  returned,  saying  —  'Colonel 
Clark,  why  will  you  force  me  to  dishonor  myself,  when 
you  cannot  acquire  more  honor  by  it?'  I  told  him  — 
'Could  I  look  on  you  as  a  gentleman,  I  would  do  to 
the  utmost  of  my  power  [to  favor  you]  ;  but,  on  you, 
sir,  who  has  embued  your  hands  in  the  blood  of  our 
women  and  children,  —  honor,  my  country,  everything, 
calls  on  me  aloud  for  vengeance.  GOVERNOR  HAMIL 
TON  :  T  know,  sir,  my  character  has  been  stained, 
but  not  deservedly;  for  I  have  always  endeavored  to 
instill  humanity,  as  much  as  in  my  power,  [into  the 
minds  of]  the  Indians  whom  the  orders  of  my  super 
iors  obliged  me  to  employ.'  COLONEL  CLARK:  'Sir, 
speak  no  more  on  this  subject;  my  blood  glows  within 
my  veins  to  think  of  the  cruelties  your  Indian  parties 
have  committed ;  therefore,  repair  to  your  fort  and 
prepare  for  battle' ;  on  which  I  turned  away ;  and  the 
Lieutenant  Governor  and  Captain  Helm  went  towards 
the  fort.  The  latter  then  said  —  'Gentlemen,  pray  do 


356       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

not  be  warm ;  strive  to  save  many  lives  which  may  be 
useful  to  their  country,  which  must  unavoidably  be 
sacrificed  in  case  you  do  not  agree' :  on  which,  we 
again  conferred."* 

It  is  the  declaration  of  the  Colonel  subsequently 
made  that  the  British  commander  "received  such  treat 
ment,  at  this  conference,  as  a  man  of  his  known  bar 
barity  deserved."  "I  would  not  come  upon  terms  with 
him;  and  I  recommended  to  him  to  defend  himself 
with  spirit  and  bravery ;  that  it  was  the  only  thing 
that  would  induce  me  to  treat  him  and  his  garrison 
with  lenity,  in  case  I  stormed  the  fort,  which  he  might 
expect.  He  asked  me  what  more  I  could  require  than 
the  offers  he  had  already  made.  I  told  him  (which 
was  really  the  truth)  that  I  wanted  a  sufficient  excuse 
to  put  all  the  Indians  and  partisans  to  death,  as  the 
greatest  part  of  these  villians  was  then  with  him.  AH 
his  propositions  were  refused.  He  asked  me  if  noth 
ing  would  do  but  fighting.  I  knew  of  nothing  else."f 

Hamilton's  account  of  the  conference  is  a  studied 
attempt  to  excuse  himself  to  his  Commander-in-chief 
for  the  misfortune  which,  it  may  be  premised,  soon 
overtook  him:  "He  [Clark]  told  me  that  it  was  in 
vain  to  think  of  persisting  in  the  defense  of  the  fort; 
that  his  cannon  would  be  up  in  a  few  hours ;  that  he 

*  Clark's  Journal  —  entry  of  Feb.  24.  This  is  the  only 
account  written  at  the  time,  so  far  as  known,  detailing  the 
conversation  between  Clark  and  Hamilton.  There  were  other 
"talks,"  as  will  be  presently  shown.  The  one  just  given  is 
PO  connected  in  the  Colonel's  Journal  with  other  matters  that 
it  there  seems  (though  erroneously)  to  have  been  not  only 
the  first  but  the  only  conversation  held  by  them. 

t  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  72. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       357 

knew  to  a  man  who  might  be  depended  upon  with  every 
other  circumstance  of  my  situation;  that  if,  from  a 
spirit  of  obstinacy  I  persisted  when  there  was  no  prob 
ability  of  relief  and  should  stand  an  assault,  not  a 
single  soul  should  be  spared.  I  replied  that,  though  my 
numbers  were  small,  I  could  depend  on  them.  He  said 
he  knew  I  had  but  thirty-five  or  thirty-six  staunch 
men;  that  it  was  but  folly  to  think  of  defense  with 
so  small  numbers  so  overmatched ;  that  if  I  would  sur 
render  at  discretion  and  trust  to  his  generosity,  I  should 
receive  better  treatment  than  if  I  articled  for  terms. 
My  answer  was,  that  I  would  then  abide  by  the  conse 
quences  and  never  take  so  disgraceful  a  step,  while 
I  had  ammunition  and  provisions. 

'  'You  will  be  answerable,'  he  said,  'for  the  lives 
lost  by  your  obstinacy."  I  said  my  men  had  declared 
they  would  die  with  arms  in  their  hands  rather  than 
surrender  at  discretion ;  that  still  I  would  accept  such 
terms  as  might  consort  with  my  honor  and  duty." 

The  suggestion  of  Hamilton  that  Clark  might  pre 
sent  articles  of  capitulation  for  his  consideration  was 
met,  says  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  by  his  remarking 
that  "he  would  think  upon  it  and  return  in  half  an 
hour.'"'*  Thereupon  they  separated,  —  the  British 
commander  returning  to  the  fort  and  the  American 
going  to  his  head  quarters.  This  ended  the  first 
conference. 

At  the  appointed  time  Clark  returned  with  Captain 
Bowman,  and  Hamilton,  with  Major  Hay,  went  to 
meet  them.  "The  soldiers,"  says  the  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor,  "in  the  mean  time,  apprehensive  of  some  ill  de 
sign,  manned  the  east  blockhouse  ready  to  fire  at  an 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


358       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

instant.  The  conversation  was  resumed,  and  Colonel 
Clark  appeared  as  determined  as  before.  "I  then  said 
further  discourse  was  vain ;  that  I  would  return  to  the 
fort,  and,  to  prevent  mistakes,  the  firing  should  not  take 
place  for  an  hour  after  our  parting.  [I]  took  my 
leave,  and  was  proceeding  to  the  fort,  when  Major 
Hay  and  Captain  Bowman  called  me  back.  The  sub 
ject  was  renewed."* 

Hamilton  then  begged  Clark  to  stay  until  he  could 
return  to  the  garrison  and  consult  his  officers.  "Being 
indifferent  about  him,"  says  the  Colonel,  "and  wanting 
a  few  moments  for  my  troops  to  refresh  themselves, 
I  told  him  that  the  firing  should  not  commence  until 
such  an  hour ;"  that  during  that  time  he  was  at  liberty 
to  pass  with  safety. "f 

Hamilton  and  Clark  again  met.J  The  former  then 
produced  a  series  of  articles  of  capitulation  for  the 
consideration  of  the  American  commander: 

"ARTICLE  IST.  Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton  engages  to 
deliver  up  to  Col.  Clark,  Fort  Sackville  as  it  is  at  present 
with  all  the  stores,  ammunition  and  provision,  reserving  only 
thirty-six  rounds  of  powder  and  ball  per  man,  and  as  many 
weeks'  provisions  as  shall  be  sufficient  to  conduct  those  of 
the  garrison,  who  shall  go  by  land  or  water  to  their  des 
tination. 

"2D.  The  garrison  are  to  deliver  themselves  as  prisoners 
of  war  and  to  march  out  with  their  arms,  accoutrements  and 

*  Id.     (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CII.) 
f  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp. 
72,  73. 

t  Id.,  p.  74.  That  this  was  the  third  meeting  and  at 
the  church,  is  evident.  "Governor  Hamilton,"  says  Clark  in 
his  letter  to  Gov.  Henry  of  April  29,  1779,  (Jefferson's  Works^ 
vol.  I,  p.  222n),  "and  myself  had  on  the  following  day  (Feb. 
24),  several  conferences."  [The  italicising  is  mine]. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       359 

knapsacks,  —  a  guide  or  guides  to  be  given  with  a  safe 
guard  to  escort  the  garrison  to  their  destination,  as  also  horses 
for  the  transport  of  provisions,  provided  the  garrison  marches 
by  land. 

"3D.  The  garrison  [is]  not  to  be  delivered  up  until  the 
person  employed  by  Col.  Clark  shall  receive  an  account  of  the 
stores,  etc. 

"4iH.  Three  days'  time  from  the  signing  of  the  articles 
[is]  to  be  allowed  the  garrison  to  provide  shoes,  etc.,  neces-' 
sary  for  the  journey  (if  by  land)  and  for  baking  bread,  as 
also  for  settling  the  accounts  with  the  traders  of  this  post. 

"5xH.  Officers  or  others  of 'the  garrison  who  have  fami 
lies  [are]  to  be  allowed  to  return  to  their  homes  on  promise 
of  not  acting  during  the  present  contest  between  Great  Britain 
and  America. 

"6TH.  The  sick  and  wounded  are  recommended  to  the 
humanity  and  generosity  of  Col.  Clark ;  any  charge  incurred 
by  them  to  be  discharged  by  Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton, 
who  will  leave  a  draft  for  50£  New  York  currency,  for 
their  use. 

"Tin.     Officers  [are]  to  take  their  private  baggage." 

"Signed  at  Fort  Sackville,  Feb'y.  24,  1779. 

"H.  HAMILTON/'* 

These  articles  were  promptly  refused  by  Clark. f 

*  These  articles,  although  printed  in  several  of  the  Eastern 
papers  in  1779,  are  not  heretofore  to  be  found  in  any  work 
on  Western  history.  The  substance  of  them  (except  the 
first,  which  is  not  mentioned)  is  given  in  Hamilton's  letter 
to  Haldimand  of  July  6,  1781.  But  he  then  erroneously  gives 
them  as  his  first  propositions  sent  out  to  Colonel  Clark. 

t  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p. 
74.  In  "Bowman's  Journal"  of  Feb.  24,  1779,  the  words 
are :  "Governor  Hamilton  produced  certain  articles  of  capitu 
lation,  which  were  refused,"  —  showing  they  were  not  sent 
by  Hamilton  but  presented  in  person.  Upon  this  point,  the 
Lieutenant  Governor,  in  his  letter  to  Haldimand  of  July  6, 
1781,  gets  confused  —  evidently  his  recollection  is  at  fault; 
for  he  says  that  then  the  Colonel  agreed  to  his  sending  terms 


360       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

The  American  commander  records  that  "Hamilton 
then  said  —  'Is  there  nothing  to  be  done  but  fighting?' 
'Yes,  sir/  I  replied,  'I  will  send  you  such  articles  as  I 
think  proper  to  allow ;  if  you  accept  them,  well.  I 
will  give  you  half  an  hour  to  consider  them' :  on  which, 
Captain  Helm  came  with  me  to  take  them  when  drawn 
up,  to  the  Lieutenant  Governor."*  And  Hamilton 
returned  to  the  fort. 

Having  assembled  his  officers,  Colonel  Clark  con 
ferred  with  them  and  it  was  finally  determined  to 
send  to  Hamilton  ("it  was  about  the  close  of  the 
evening")  articles,  by  which  the  latter  engaged  to 
surrender  to  the  former,  Fort  Sackville,  as  it  then 
was,  with  all  its  stores,  ammunition,  provisions,  etc., 
etc, ;  the  garrison  to  deliver  themselves  up  as  prisoners 
of  war,  and  march  out  with  their  arms,  accoutrements, 
knapsacks,  etc.,  at  ten  o'clock  next  day;  three  days 
to  be  allowed  them  to  settle  their  accounts  with  the 
inhabitants  and  traders  of  Vincennes;  and  the  officers 
to  be  allowed  their 'necessary  baggage,  etc. 

These  articles  were  taken  inside  the  fort  by  Captain 
Helm  for  Hamilton's  consideration.  "I  agreed  to 
them,"  says  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  "having  first 
called  the  officers  together  and  explained  to  them  the 

for  his   (Clark's)   consideration,  and  that  they  were  sent  the 
same  evening. 

*  Clark's  Journal  — entry  of  Feb.  24,  1779  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  But  the  Colonel,  in  his  record  of  that  day,  connects 
these  words  immediately  with  the  first  conversation,  thereby 
leaving  it  to  be  inferred  that  there  was  but  one  conference. 
This  is  error  as  already  shown.  "Bowman's  Journal"  has  the 
following,  after  mentioning  the  fact  that  Hamilton's  articles 
of  capitulation  were  refused :  "The  Colonel  told  him  he  would 
consult  with  his  officers  and  let  him  know  the  terms  he  would 
capitulate  on  [meaning,  the  terms  he  would  grant  him]." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       361 

necessity  of  the  step.  The  men  were  then  assembled, 
and  were  convinced  that  no  advantage  to  his  Majesty's 
service  could'  result  from  our  holding  out  in  our  present 
circumstances." 

Within  the  time  limited,  Captain  Helm  returned 
with  the  articles  signed  by  the  Lieutenant  Governor, 
with  these  words  written  above  his  signature :  "Agreed 
to,  for  the  following  reasons:  the  remoteness  from 
succors ;  the  state  and  quantity  of  provisions ;  unani 
mity  of  officers  and  men  on  its  expediency ;  the  hon 
orable  terms  allowed  and,  lastly,  the  confidence  in  a 
generous  enemy."* 

Among  the  reasons  not  mentioned  by  the  British 
commander  in  giving  his  assent  to  these  articles  (if 
we  are  to  believe  what  he  afterward  asserted)  were 
the  treachery  of  one  half  the  little  garrison,  the  cer 
tainty  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  village  having  joined 
the  rebels,  the  northeast  angle  of  the  fort  projecting 
over  a  sand  bank  already  considerably  undermined, 
the  miserable  state  of  the  wounded  men,  and  the  im 
possibility  of  effecting  our  escape  by  water. f  Hamil 
ton,  at  the  same  time,  attempts  to  apologize  for  the 
use  of  the  words  —  "the  confidence  in  a  generous 

*  Clark's  Journal  —  entry  of  Feb.  24.  "Bowman's  Jour 
nal"  —  entry  of  the  same  date ;  but  there  is  a  difference  in 
the  wording  of  the  articles  (though  the  meaning  is  essentially 
the  same)  in  the  printed  Journal  from  the  MSS.  copy.  Clark 
to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  75.  Hamilton 
to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781  —  Germain  MSS.  No  two  of  these 
are  the  same,  word  for  word.  I  have  followed  Clark's  Journal, 
as  near  as  may  be,  in  the  text;  but,  for  an  exact  copy  of  the 
Articles,  see  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CIII. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
(See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CIV.) 


362       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

enemy":  "If  it  be  considered  that  we  were  to  leave 
our  wounded  men  at  the  mercy  of  a  man  who  had 
shown  such  instances  of  ferocity  as  Colonel  Clark  had 
lately,  a  compliment  bespeaking  his  generosity  and 
humanity  may  possibly  find  excuse  with  some  as  I 
know  it  has  censure  from  others." 

After  having  given  the  necessary  orders  for  the 
surrender  of  the  fort  on  the  morrow  according  to  the 
terms  of  the  capitulation  agreed  upon,  the  Lieutenant 
Governor  "passed  the  night  in  sorting  papers  and  in 
preparing  for  the  disagreeable  ceremony  of  the  next 
day.  Mortification,  disappointment  and  indignation 
had  their  turns." 

"The  business  being  now  nearly  at  an  end,"  says 
Clark  in  an  after-recollection  of  the  matter,  "troops 
were  posted  in  several  strong  houses  around  the  garri 
son  and  patroled  during  the  night  to  prevent  any 
deception  that  might  be  attempted.  The  remainder 
on  duty  lay  on  their  arms  and  for  the  first  time  for 
many  days  past  got  some  rest."* 

About  ten  o'clock  of  the  following  morning  (the 
twenty-fifth),  Captain  Bowman  and  Captain  McCarty's 
companies  paraded  on  each  side  of  the  gate  of  the 
fort.f  Hamilton  and  his  men  then  marched  out,  "with 
fixed  bayonets,"  as  he  declares,  "and  the  soldiers  with 
their  knapsacks,  —  the  colors  had  not  been  hoisted 

*  Clark's  Memoir —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
156,  157. 

t  "Bowman's  Journal"  says  the  two  companies  were 
"paraded  on  one  side  of  the  fort  gate  [the  italicising  is  mine]  ;" 
but  this  is  error  as  shown  by  Chesne,  who  says  (in  his  Ac 
count)  they  were  "drawn  up  on  each  side  of  the  fort  gate" 
(the  word  "each"  being  italicised  by  myself). 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       363 

.  .  .  that  we  might  be  spared  the  mortification  of 
hauling  them  down  ;"*  and  the  whole  force  of  the 
garrison,  seventy-nine  in  number,  was  surrendered  to 
the  two  Captains  just  mentioned  as  prisoners  of  war.f 
Considerable  stores  also  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
victors.  "Besides  the  provisions,  clothing  and  stores 
belonging  to  the  king,"  says  the  Lieutenant  Governor, 
"all  the  private  baggage  of  the  officers  fell  into  the 
possession  of  Colonel  Clark."J 

"It  had  been  told  Colonel  Clark,"  is  the  declaration 
of  Hamilton,  "that  we  had  labored  all  night  to  lay 
powder-chests  under  the  gateway,  and  had  planted  the 
six-pounder  loaded  with  grape,  which,  by  a  train, 
was  to  destroy  the  rebels  as  they  entered  to  take 
possession.  This  report  may  reasonably  be  imputed 
to  the  invention  of  the  French  inhabitants,  since  they 
had  the  effrontery  to  give  Colonel  Clark  a  written 
account  of  cruelties  exercised  by  us  .  .  .  which 
our  own  American  prisoners  confuted  in  their  ac 
counts  to  the  Colonel. "§ 

Colonel  Clark,  with  Captain  Williams  and  Cap 
tain  Worthington's  companies,  now  marched  inside 
the  fortification,  relieved  the  sentries,  hoisted  the  Amer 
ican  colors,  and  secured  all  the  arms.  The  Lieutenant 
Governor  then  marched  back  to  the  fort  and  shut  the 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 

t  Clark  to  Gov.  Henry,  April  29,  1779.  —Jefferson's 
Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222  n.  "Bowman's  Journal."  Butler's  Ken 
tucky,  pp.  86,  87.  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  157. 
(See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CXVI.) 

J  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
The  value  of  the  stores  "belonging  to  the  King"  is  nowhere 
estimated  by  Hamilton  or  Clark  in  any  of  their  statements. 

§  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


364       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

gate.  Thirteen  guns  were  attempted  to  be  fired,  one 
for  each  of  the  thirteen  states,  "during  which  time 
there  happened  a  very  unlucky  accident  through  mis 
management"  after  the  ninth  discharge.  There  blew 
up  twenty-six  six-pound  cartridges  in  one  of  the 
batteries,  which  much  hurt  Captain  Bowman,  Captain 
Worthington,  and  four  privates.* 

And  now  Fort  Sackville  was  again  in  possession  of 
Americans,  and  its  name  changed  to  "Fort  Patrick 
Henry."  Hamilton  attributed  his  failure,  "chiefly,  if 
not  entirely"  to  the  treachery  of  the  persons  whom,  he 
declares  afterward  to  his  Commander-in-chief,  he  "had 
reason  to  expect  lenity  and  moderation  would  have 
gained  and  whose  interest  it  was  to  be  faithful."  He 
refers,  of  course,  to  the  inhabitants  of  Vincenries. 
While  giving  Clark  credit  for  a  due  amount  of  cour 
age  and  perseverance  in  marching  against  Fort  Sack 
ville,  he  declares  it  is  not  for  him  to  determine  whether 
the  Colonel  was  entitled  to  success  or  not  in  its  capture. 
"In  trusting  to  traitors,"  says  the  Lieutenant  Governor, 
"he  was  more  fortunate  than  myself."  As  to  the  Cana 
dians  who  went  from  Detroit  upon  the  expedition,  he 
declares  there  was  but  little  choice  among  them.  The 
arts  of  some  rebel  emissaries  and  the  intrigues  of  per 
sons  still  attached  to  the  interests  of  France,  got  the 
better  of  the  good  intentions  they  might  have  set  out 
with.  "If  my  conduct,"  he  says,  in  writing  the  Com 
mander-in-chief,  "appears  to  your  Excellency  in  a  jus 
tified  light,  I  may  hope  to  be  more  pitied  than  blamed ; 

*  "Bowman's  Journal"  —  Department  of  State  MSS. 
Compare  same  in  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  108. 
Chesne  says  (in  his  Account)  he  was  told  there  were  but  nine 
guns  heard.  (See  further  as  to  this  mishap,  Appendix  to  our 
narrative,  Note  CV.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       365 

at  least,  your  approbation  will  enable  me  to  support 
the  weight  of  that  censure  which  seldom  fails  to 
accompany  an  unsuccessful  enterprise."* 

In  one  thing,  at  least,  Hamilton  got  the  better  of 
Clark ;  —  he  conducted  the  conferences  had  with  the 
Colonel  with  consummate  skill,  making  use  of  Captain 
Helm  (who,  naturally,  could  not  relish  the  idea  of 
being  inside  the  fort,  even  though  an  American  and 
well  known  to  the  assailants,  when  assaulted  by  Vir 
ginia  riflemen)  very  effectively  as  a  go-between.  By 
yielding  as  it  were,  point  by  point  only  after  strong 
efforts  to  maintain  each,  and  by  a  firm  declaration  often 
repeated  to  die  rather  than  surrender  at  discretion, 
he  finally  succeeded  in  almost  forcing  from  the  Amer 
ican  commander  honorable  terms  of  capitulation.  This 
was  strategy  of  a  high  order.  It  was,  almost  from 
the  firing  of  the  first  gun,  evidently  the  only  hope 
of  the  Lieutenant  Governor  to  obtain  from  his  assail 
ant  some  terms  which  should  prevent  an  indiscriminate 
slaughter  of  his  men  when  the  fort  should  be  taken; 
and  in  this  he  was  successful. 

The  spirit  and  assurance  manifested  by  Clark  in 
marching  openly  into  Vincennes  was,  of  course,  the 
•result  of  his  having  learned  that  the  inhabitants  were 
friendly.  He  believed  he  could  not  be  deceived,  and 
he  was  not.  His  bravery  in  assailing  the  fort  was 
due,  at  first,  largely  to  the  circumstance  that  his  ar 
tillery  was  hourly  expected  and  he  would  secure  mean 
while  advantageous  situations  for  planting  his  guns.f 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
t  Appendix,  Note  CVI. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE  sending  by  Hamilton,  on  the  last  day  of 
January,  of  Commissary  Adhemar  St.  Mar 
tin,  with  ten  boats  and  thirty  of  the  inhabi 
tants  of  Vincennes,  to  Fort  Miami  —  head  of  the  Mau- 
mee  —  for  provisions  and  stores  which  had  been  for 
warded  from  Detroit,  had  already  been  made  known  to 
Clark ;  and  he  lost  no  time  in  fitting  out  an  expedition 
to  capture  the  whole,  before  news  could  reach  Adhe 
mar  of  the  surrender  of  Hamilton. 

On  the  day  after  the  occupation  of  the  fort  by  the 
Americans,  the  Colonel  ordered  Captain  Helm,  Moses 
Henry,  Major  Legras  and  Captain  Bosseron  with  fifty 
men  of  the  Vincennes  militia  (Legras  and  Bosseron 
having  assumed  the  command  of  which  they  had  been 
deprived  by  Hamilton )  to  proceed  up  the  Wabash  with 
three  boats,  each  armed  with  a  swivel,  to  intercept  the 
convoy.*  "Knowing,"  says  Clark,  "that  Governor 
Hamilton  had  sent  a  party  of  men  up  the  Wabash  to 
Orne  [Fort  Miami]  for  stores  that  he  had  left  there, 
which  must  be  on  their  return,  I  waited  about  twelve 
hours  for  the  arrival  of  the  galley  [the  Willing]  to  in 
tercept  them ;  but  fearing  their  getting  intelligence,  I 
dispatched  Captain  Helm  with  a  party  in  armed  boats 
[to  capture  them]."f  This  was  on  the  twenty-sixth 
of  February. 

*  "Bowman's  Journal"  —  Department  of  State  MSS. ;  but 
in  the  same  when  printed  (Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  108),  Capt.  Bosseron's  name  is  omitted. 

f  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p. 
75.  But  the  Colonel  was  in  error  in  stating  the  stores  had 
(366) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      367 

Meanwhile,  St.  Martin,  with  thirty-eight  men, 
(ei'ght  having  taken  passage  for  their  homes),  had 
left  Fort  Miami,  crossed  the  carrying-place,  and  was 
floating  down  the  Wabash,  not  only  with  his  provi 
sions  and  stores,  but  with  Depean,  who,  upon  his  ar 
rival  at  Miami,  had  obtained  leave  of  the  commandant 
to  proceed  on  his  journey,  taking  with  him  a  number 
of  letters  from  Detroit  which  had  been  entrusted  to 
him.  Little  did  the  party  imagine,  as  the  seven  boats 
were  urged  down  the  river,  the  reception  which 
awaited  them. 

Captain  Helm  returned  to  Vincennes  on  the  fifth 
of  March.  He  had  been  successful.  At  Wea,  he  met 
the  British  convoy  and  made  a  prize  of  the  whole, 
taking  forty  prisoners  and  about  ten  thousand  pounds 
sterling  worth  of  goods  and  provisions  without  firing 
a  gun ;  also  the  mail  from  Canada  to  Governor  Ham 
ilton,  containing,  however,  no  news  of  importance. 
Hamilton  subsequently  declared  that  Dejean  had  not 
sufficient  presence  of  mind  to  destroy  the  papers, 
which,  with  everything  else,  were  seized  by  the  rebels. 

The  return  of  the  Captain  caused  much  rejoicing, 
not  only  because  of  the  large  amount  of  stores  secured, 
but  because  of  the  capture  of  "Grand  Judge"  Dejean 
and  Commissary  St.  Martin.  Such  of  the  prisoners 
as  were  inhabitants  of  Vincennes  were  at  once  set  at 
liberty. 

Of  the  "spoils"  secured,  Clark  divided  as  gifts 
among  his  men  a  considerable  amount  of  such  things 
as  were  thought  suitable  for  them,  only  retaining  for 
himself  and  his  officers  a  small  quantity  of  needed 

been  left  at  Fort  Miami  by  Hamilton.  His  words  to  Gov. 
Henry  of  April  29,  1779,  are  nearer  the  truth:  "Hearing  of 
a  convoy  of  goods  from  Detroit,"  etc. 


368       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

clothing.  There  was  set  aside  for  a  specific  purpose 
what  was  judged  to  be  of  the  value  of  eight  hundred 
pounds  sterling,  in  addition  to  the  foregoing.* 

On  the  same  day  that  Helm  reported  his  success 
to  Colonel  Clark,  the  latter  discharged  a  number  of  the 
Illinois  volunteers,  consisting  of  the  whole  of  Cap 
tain  Charleville's  company  and  a  part  of  Captain  Mc- 
Carty's.  Cheerfully,  of  course,  they  started  for  their 
homes.  Meanwhile,  it  seems,  Clark  had  sent  men 
down  the  Wabash  to  bring  up  to  Vincennes,  the  horses 
which  had  been  left  below  the  mouth  of  the  Embar 
rass  on  the  march  out.f 

Hamilton,  not  many  hours  after  he  became  a  pris 
oner,  if  we  may  credit  his  account,  feared  he  had 
placed  himself  in  the  power  of  a  tyrant.  "The  even 
ing  of  the  day  we  capitulated,"  he  subsequently  as 
sured  General  Haldimand,  "Colonel  Clark  ordered 
neck-irons,  fetters  and  hand-cuffs  to  be  made,  which, 
in  our  hearing,  he  declared  were  designed  for  those  of 
ficers  who  had  been  employed  as  partisans  with  the  In 
dians.  I  took  him  aside  and  reminded  him  that  these 
prisoners  were  prisoners  of  war  included  in  the  capit 
ulation  which  he  had  so  lately  set  his  hand  to.  He 
said  his  resolution  was  formed;  that  he  had  made  a 

*  "Bowman's  Journal."  Clark  to  the  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  April  29,  1779  — Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222  n. 
Jefferson  to  Captain  Lernoult,  July  22,  1779  —  Calendar  of 
Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  I,  p.  321.  Clark  to  Mason,  Nov. 
19,  1779  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  75.  Hamilton 
to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781  —  Haldimand  MSS.  Butler's 
Kentucky,  p.  87.  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of 
1859),  pp.  157,  158.  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CVII, 

t  Such  is  the  inference  from  a  letter  written  by  Clark  to 
Gov.  Henry,  March  9,   1779,  to  be  found  in  the 
MSS.     [See  Appendix,  Note  CXXV(l)]. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       369 

vow  never  to  spare  man,  woman  or  child  of  the  In 
dians  or  those  who  were  employed  with  them." 

"I  observed  to  him,"  continued  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor,  "that  these  persons  having  obeyed  my  or 
ders  were  not  to  be  blamed  for  the  execution  of  them ; 
that  I  had  never  known  that  they  had  acted  contrary 
to  those  orders,  by  encouraging  the  cruelty  of  the  sav 
ages;  and  that,  if  he  was  determined  to  pass  by  the 
consideration  of  his  faith  and  that  of  the  public, 
pledged  for  the  performance  of  the  articles  of  capit 
ulation,  I  desired  he  might  throw  me  into  prison,  or 
lay  me  in  irons,  rather  than  the  others.  He  smiled 
contemptuously,  turned  away,  and  ordered  three  of 
these  persons  to  the  guard  till  the  irons  should  be 
made."* 

But  the  British  commander  had  other  causes  of 
complaint.  "The  scalps  of  the  slaughtered  Indians 
were  hung  up  by  our  tents,"  he  indignantly  declared  to 
his  Commander-in-Chief ;  "and  a  young  man  of  the 
name  of  Ramboult  was  brought  into  the  fort  with  a 
halter  about  his  neck ;  and  only  for  the  interposition  of 
the  volunteers  from  the  Illinois  (some  of  whom  were 
his  relations)  he  would  infallibly  have  been  hanged 
without  any  crime  laid  to  his  charge  but  his  having 
been  with  a  scouting  party.  He  was  half  strangled 
before  he  was  taken  from  the  tree."* 

Hamilton  fails  to  explain  what  was  implied  by  the 
culprit  being  out  "with  a  scouting  party;"  fails  to 
make  known  that  it  meant  the  killing  of  men,  women 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
(See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CVIII.) 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 

24  : 


370       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

and  children  indiscriminately  at  their  homes  in  the 
Kentucky  settlements. 

"Besides  the  provision,  clothing  and  stores  be 
longing  to  the  King,  all  the  private  baggage  of  the 
officers  fell  into  the  possession  of  Colonel  Clark,"  is 
the  lugubrious  assertion  of  Hamilton,  .  .  .  "Col 
onel  Clark  being  arbiter  of  that  article  of  the  capitula 
tion  by  which  the  officers  were  to  take  their  necessary 
baggage."*  But  private  baggage  was  one  thing; 
necessary  baggage,  quite  another. 

However  much  the  Lieutenant-Governor  may 
have  deprecated  the  conduct  of  Clark  toward  his 
(Hamilton's)  savage  allies,  he  had  really  no  cause  of 
complaint  after  his  surrender,  because  of  bad  treat 
ment  of  himself  or  his  officers  from  the  Colonel,  who, 
it  is  evident,  did  not  carry  out  his  scheme  of  ironing 
such  as  were  partisans.  On  the  first  day  of  March,  all 
were  given  the  freedom  of  the  town  on  their  signing 
a  parole  not  to  go  beyond  its  limits. f  The  one  signed 
by  Hamilton  (and  those  by  the. other  officers  were  of 
like  tenor)  was  in  these  words : 

*  Id.  What  Lieut.  Schieffelin  also  wrote  concerning  the 
failure  of  Clark  to  carry  out  the  stipulation  of  the  surrender 
relative  to  the  "necessary  baggage"  of  the  officers,  was  this: 
"The  rebel  officers  plundered  the  British  of  their  baggage, 
etc.,  contrary  to  the  faith  pledged  by  them,  by  virtue  of 
which  they  yielded  their  arms."  {Loose  Notes  —  Magazine 
of  American  History,  vol.  I,  p.  187.  But,  it  is  clear,  that  the 
right  to  determine  what  was  "necessary  baggage"  was  one 
of  the  prerogatives  of  Clark. 

f  Schieffelin :  Loose  Notes.  "Bowman's  Journal"  under 
date  of  March  1.  A  copy  of  Hay's  parole  is  in  the  Haldimand 
MSS. ;  that  of  Schieffelin  is  printed  in  his  Loose  Notes.  But 
the  letter  gives  the  impression  that  they  were  paroled  the 
next  morning  after  the  surrender,  which  is  error. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       371 

"ViNCENNES,   March   1,   1779. 

"This  certifies  that  I  have  given  my  parole  of  honor  to 
Col.  George  Rogers  Clark,  commanding  the  American  forces 
here,  that  I  will  not  attempt  to  make  my  escape  from  this 
place,  nor  will  I  by  word  or  action,  behave  unbecoming  a 
prisoner  at  large ;  neither  will  I  in  any  manner  convey  intel 
ligence  to  the  subjects  of  his  Britannic  Majesty  in  arms 
against  the  States  of  America. 

"In  witness  wherof,  I  hereunto  sign  my  name  without 
compulsion.  "HENRY  HAMILTON, 

"Lieu.  Gov.  and  Superintendent." 

But  Hamilton,  as  a  prisoner,  was  ill  at  ease. 
"Our  soldiers"  are  his  subsequent  words,  "told  us  that 
some  of  the  rebels  had  solemnly  sworn  to  destroy 
Major  Hay  and  myself  the  first  opportunity.  As  we 
could  not  guard  against  any  attempt  in  the  situation 
we  then  found  ourselves,  we  thought  it  best  to  appear 
unacquainted  with  any  such  resolution,  but  we  were 
twice  in  the  night  obliged  to  fly  for  security  to  Col 
onel  Clark's  quarters  in  the  fort,  —  two  men  that  were 
intoxicated  and  whose  names  had  been  given  us  at 
tempting  to  shoot  us  in  our  tent.  The  attempt  was 
proven,  but  no  punishment  ensued. f 

Soon  after  his  surrender,  the  British  commander 
had  been  informed  by  Clark  that  he  and  his  officers 
and  perhaps  others  of  the  prisoners  were  to  be  sent 
east  over  the  mountains  to  Williamsburg.  When  this 
would  happen  the  Colonel  wisely  declined  to  give  any 
one  a  hint.  "We  were  kept  in  the  dark,"  says  the 
Lieutenant-Governor,  "as  to  the  day  of  our  departure, 
although  I  had  repeatedly  asked  it  that  we  might  have 
bread  baked  and  other  necessary  preparations  made."* 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Grmain  MSS. 
(See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CIX.) 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


372       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

On  the  seventh,  Captain  Williams  and  Lieutenant 
Rogers,  with  twenty-five  men,  set  off  for  the  Falls  of 
the  Ohio,  with  Hamilton,  Dejean,  Lieutenant  Schief- 
felin,  Dr.  McBeath,  Francis  Maisonville,  Mr.  Belle- 
fluille,  Major  Hay,  Captain  Lamothe,  Adhemar  St. 
Martin,  and  eighteen  other  prisoners  (who  had  made 
themselves  especially  obnoxious  by  going  out  with 
Indian  war  parties)  to  be  sent  to  Williamsburg,  —  to 
which  place  Lieutenant  Rogers  had  orders  to  guard 
them  from  the  Falls. f 

The  prisoners  were  "under  guard  of  two  armed 
boats"  and  furnished  with  ten  days'  rations  of  pork 
and  flour  to  last  them  until  their  arrival  "at  the  Falls 
fort,  on  the  Ohio  (400  miles)  to  row  against  a  strong 
current.''^  Fourteen  gallons  of  spirits  were  sent 
along  for  the  prisoners  and  their  guard. § 

Before  starting,  the  Lieutenant-Governor  and 
Major  Hay,  by  consent  of  Colonel  Clark,  wrote  each 
to  Captain  Lernoult  at  Detroit,  asking  him  to  allow  a 
Mr.  Cournailler,  who  proposed  to  go  to  that  place  on 
his  private  affairs,  to  return  to  Vincennes.|| 

The  tenth,  in  the  afternoon,"  says  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor,  "we  reached  the  Ohio,  whose  waters  were 
out  in  an  uncommon  and  astonishing  degree.  The 

f  "Bowman's  Journal"  in  the  Department  of  State  MSS., 
where  several  of  their  names  are  misspelled  and  Adhemar 
St.  Martin's  is  omitted.  The  spelling  in  the  same  in  Clark's 
Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  109,  is  yet  wider  of  the  mark; 
and  there  also  St.  Martin's  name  is  not  mentioned.  (See 
Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CX.) 

J  Schieffelin  :     Loose  Notes. 

§  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 

||  Hamilton  to  Lernoult  and  Major  Hay  to  same.  —  Haldi 
mand  MSS.  Hamilton's  letter,  although  written  on  the  7th  of 
March,  is  dated  the  8th. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       373 

depth  above  the  banks  [was]  eighteen  feet,  with  such 
a  swift  current  as  made  it  very  fatiguing  to  row,  which 
we  all  did  in  turn,  while  our  guard  was  distributed  in 
four  light  boats.  At  night,  we  were  obliged  to  lie  in 
our  boat,  making  it  fast  to  a  tree;  for  the  flood  ex 
tended  as  far  in  the  woods  as  the  eye  could  reach. 
We  made  a  miserable  shift  with  our  mast  and  oars  to 
throw  a  cover  overhead  to  keep  out  the  rain,  and  lay 
like  swine,  closely  jammed  together,  having  not  room 
to  extend  ourselves/' 

"We  presently  found  the  discipline  of  our  guards 
such,"  continues  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  "as  would 
have  enabled  us  to  seize  their  arms  and  escape  to  the 
Natches ;  this  was  agitated  among  us,  but  the  idea 
was  given  up  on  the  persuasion  that  our  companions 
left  in  the  hands  of  the  rebels  at  Vincennes  would  be 
sufferers  for  it.  We  fell  in  with  four  Delaware  In 
dians  who  were  hunting,  having  only  their  bows  and 
arrows.  Our  escort  obliged  them  to  accompany  us 
part  of  the  way,  but  they  disappeared  one  day ;  and  we 
were  given  to  understand  they  were  quietly  knocked 
on  the  head."* 

The  Falls  of  the  Ohio  was  reached  on  the  thir 
tieth  when  the  prisoners  were  "marched  to  the  Falls 
fort,  commanded  by  Captain  [William]  Harrod.  Lit 
tle  or  no  refreshments  were  to  be  had."f  This  is  not 
surprising.  The  emigrants,  as  well  as  the  original 
settlers  upon  the  island,  who  had  moved  to  the  main 
land,  and  had  located  around  the  fort  found  it  diffi 
cult  to  supply  themselves  with  necessaries.  Their 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 

t  Schieffelin :  Loose  Notes.  The  Lieutenant  gives  the 
day  of  arrival  at  the  Falls  fort  as  the  31st;  but  Hamilton 
says  it  was  the  30th.  I  have  followed  the  Lieutenant  Governor. 


374       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

new  settlement  which  had  taken  the  name  of  "White 
Home,"  clustered  around  the  fortification.* 

Hamilton  found  at  the  Falls,  as  he  remarks,  with 
much  truthfulness,  "a  number  of  settlers  who  live  in 
log  houses,  in  eternal  apprehensions  from  the  In 
dians  ;"f  —  "the  cause  of  all  which  anxiety,"  he  could, 
with  truth,  have  added,  "was,  because  I  chose  to  obey 
the  behests  of  my  superiors,  however  barbarous,  rather 
than  resign  my  office ;  and  because  I  had  shut  my  eyes 
to  the  awful  scenes  of  destruction  and  death  which  I 
knew  were  constantly  occurring  in  the  Kentucky  set 
tlements  from  these  savage  visitations." 

The  news  that  Fort  Sackville  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  British  on  the  seventeenth  of  December, 
had  only  reached  the  Falls  the  day  before  the  arrival 
there  of  the  prisoners, J  so  vigilant  had  been  the  parties 
sent  out  from  Vincennes  by  Hamilton ;  and  great,  of 
course,  was  the  astonishment  of  the  borderers  to  find 
by  ocular  demonstration,  that  the  Fort  had  already 
been  re-taken,  and  that  before  them  was  a  number  of 
the  enemy  who  had  surrendered  to  the  heroic  Clark 
and  his  gallant  Americans. 

From  the  ''Falls  fort,"  the  Lieutenant-Governor 
and  his  fellow  prisoners  were  marched  through  the 
woods  on  foot,  under  a  heavy  guard,  with  their  nec 
essaries  and  provisions  about  one  hundred  miles,  to 
Harrodstown,  which  they  reached  on  the  eighth  of 
April.  The  post  there  they  found  commanded  by  Col 
onel  John  Bowman,  county-lieutenant  of  Kentucky 

*  R.  T.  Durrett,  in  the  Louisville  Courier-Journal,  August 
2,  1883. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
jld. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       375 

county,  "who  treated  them  as  well  as  his  abilities 
would  admit."  There  they  remained  ten  days  when 
they  again  started,  "depending,"  says  one  of  the  pris 
oners,  "on  Providence  for  provisions"  and  "insulted 
by  every  dirty  fellow  as  they  passed  through  the  coun 
try;*  "In  our  long  march,"  afterward  declared  the 
Lieutenant-Governor,  "we  had  frequently  hunger  and 
thirst  to  encounter  as  well  as  fatigue. "f 

According  to  Hamilton,  Colonel  Clark  had  prom 
ised  to  send  fifteen  horses  to  the  Falls  for  his  (Ham 
ilton's)  use  and  those  of  the  other  officers,  on  their 
march  thence;  but  that  promise,  he  declares,  "never 
was  performed."  "He  had  apprized  us,"  are  the  Lieu 
tenant-Governor's  words,  "that  there  was  but  little 
chance  of  escaping  with  our  lives,  the  people  on  the 
frontiers  were  so  exasperated  by  the  inroads  of  the 
Indians ;  and,  in  this,  we  found  he  had  told  us  the 
truth,  being  often  threatened  upon  the  march  and  way 
laid  at  different  places.  Our  guard,  however,  be 
haved  very  well,  protected  us  and  hunted  for  us,  else 
we  must  have  starved,  for  our  rations  were  long  since 
expended,  and  our  allowance  of  bear's  flesh  and  In 
dian  meal  was  frequently  very  scanty." 

"The  people  at  the  forts,"  Hamilton  added,  "were 
in  a  wretched  state,  obliged  to  enclose  their  cattle 
every  night  within  the  pickets,  and  carry  their  rifles  to 
the  field  when  they  went  to  plow  of  cut  wood."|  Why 
these  particulars  should  have  been  related  by  the 
Lieutenant-Governor  afterward,  to  his  superior  officer 
can  only  be  accounted  for  on  the  presumption  that  he 

*  Schieffelin  :    Loose  Notes. 

f  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 

JId. 


376       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

delighted  in  recounting  them  and  in  the  remembrance 
that  he,  of  all  others,  had  most  promoted  such  wretch 
edness  and  distress  to  the  "rebels"  —  men,  women 
and  children. 

As  the  prisoners  and  their  guard  passed  out  of 
Kentucky,  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  who,  for  over 
three  years  had  governed  Detroit  and  its  dependencies 
always  in  a  turbulent  manner  (and  sometimes  des 
potically),  was  forced  from  the  West,  in  a  bad  plight. 
His  capture,,  wherever  it  had  become  known  in  the 
American  frontier  settlement,  was  hailed  with  delight  ;- 
for  the  backwoodsmen  all  knew  who  it  was  that  fitted 
out  many  war-parties  of  savages  carrying  destruction 
and  death  to  the  distracted  border. 

Without  any  suspicions  of  the  stirring  events 
which  had  in  the  previous  month  transpired  at  Vin- 
cennes,  —  without  any  knowledge  of  Clark's  march 
and  the  capture  of  Hamilton  —  without  any  informa 
tion  of  the  latter  being  then  on  his  way  to  the  Vir 
ginia  capital  a  prisoner  of  war,  —  Governor  Henry, 
on  the  sixteenth  of  March,  wrote  Washington,  that 
Virginia  militia  had  full  possession  of  the  Illinois  and 
the  post  (Vincennes)  on  the  Wabash;  that  he  was  not 
without  hopes  the  same  militia  might  overawe  the  In 
dians  as  far  as  Detroit;  that  these  troops  were  inde 
pendent  of  General  Mclntosh  whose  numbers  al 
though  upward  of  two  thousand,  he  thought  could  not 
make  any  great  progress  on  account,  as  he  had  heard, 
of  the  route  they  took  and  the  lateness  of  the  season ; 
that  the  conquest  of  the  Illinois  and  Wabash  towns 
was  effected  with  less  than  two  hundred  men,  who 
would  soon  be  reinforced;  and  that  then  these  mili- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       377 

tiamen,  he  hoped,  by  holding  posts  on  the  back  of  the 
Indians,  might  intimidate  them.* 

On  the  eighteenth  of  May,  the  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  having  received  information  of  the  capture  of 
Hamilton,  announced  it  to  the  House : 

"I  have  enclosed  a  letter  for  the  perusal  of  the 
Assembly,  from  Colonel  Clark,  at  the  Illinois.  This 
letter,  among  other  things,  informs  me  of  an  expedi 
tion  which  he  had  planned  and  was  determined  to  ex 
ecute,  in  order  to  recover  Fort  Vincennes,  which  had 
been  formerly  taken  from  the  British  troops  and  gar 
risoned  by  those  under  the  Colonel's  command.  This 
enterprise  has  succeeded  to  our  utmost  wishes;  for 
the  garrison  commanded  by  Henry  Hamilton,  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor  of  Detroit,  and  consisting  of  British 
regulars  and  a  number  of  volunteers,  were  made  pris 
oners  of  war.  Colonel  Clark  has  sent  the  Governor, 
with  several  officers  and  privates  under  guard,  who 
have  by  this  time  arrived  at  New  London,  in  the 
county  of  Bedford.  Proper  measures  will  be  adopted 
by  the  Executive,  for  their  confinement  and  se 
curity.'^ 

"At  length,"  says  Hamilton,  "we  gained  the  set 
tled  country,  and  at  Lynch's  ferry,  on  James  river, 
were  put  into  canoes  and  continued  our  progress  by 
water."  On  the  twentieth  of  May,  being  on  shore  to 

*  Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  Ill,  p.  230. 

f  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  I,  pp.  315,  316; 
Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  240,  241.  The  letter 
mentioned  by  Gov.  Henry  as  having  been  received  from  Clark 
was  the  one  dated  at  Kaskaskia  Feb.  3,  1779.  He  of  course 
only  got  from  that  letter  the  Colonel's  determination  to  go 
against  Vincennes.  The  residue  of  the  information  he  ob 
tained,  doubtless,  from  some  person  or  persons  who  had 
come  on  with  the  prisoners. 


378       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

get  refreshments,  the  Lieutenant-Governor  was  agree 
ably  surprised  to  find  himself  at  Brigadier  Hamilton's 
quarters,  "who  endeavored,"  the  Lieutenant-Governor 
affirms,  "by  his-  kindness  and  hospitality  to  make 
us  forget  our  hardships."  "The  same  evening,"  he 
states  further,  "halting  at  the  house  of  a  rebel,  Col 
onel  Lewis,  we  had  the  good  fortune  to  see  two  officers 
of  the  Convention  army.  Captain  Freeman,  aid-de 
camp  to  General  Reidezel  was  so  obliging  as  to  be  the 
bearer  of  a  letter  from  me  to  General  [William]  Phil 
lips."  He  also  sent  one  to  General  Haldimand,  con 
taining  the  capitulation  and  some  returns.  On  the 
twenty-sixth,  the  prisoners  were  marched  by  a  "rebel" 
captain  with  a  small  force,  from  Beaver  Dam  to  Rich 
mond;  thence,  they  were  taken  to  Chesterfield  Court 
House,  being  "kept  to  its  limits  under  a  strong 
guard."* 

By  the  middle  of  June,  the  Virginia  Council  had 
determined  to  put  Hamilton,  Dejean  and  Lamothe  in 
irons,  and  confine  them  in  the  dungeons  of  the  public 
jail,  —  to  be  "debarred  the  use  of  pen,  ink  and  paper, 
and  excluded  all  converse,  except  with  their  keeper." 

"The  Board  proceeded  to  the  consideration  of  the 
letters  of  Colonel  Clark,  and  other  papers  relative  to 
Henry  Hamilton,  Esq.,  who  has  acted  for  some  years 
past  as  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  settlement  at  and 
about  Detroit,  and  commandant  of  the  British  garri 
son  there,  under  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  as  Governor-in- 
chief ;  Philip  Dejean,  justice  of  the  peace  for  Detroit, 
and  William  Lamothe,  captain  of  volunteers,  —  pris 
oners  of  war  taken  in  the  county  of  Illinois." 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
Schieffelin  :  Loose  Notes  —  Magazine  of  American  History, 
vol.  I,  p.  188.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CXI.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       379 

"They  find,"  says  the  Board,  "that  Governor 
Hamilton  has  executed  the  task  of  inciting  Indians  to 
perpetrate  their  accustomed  cruelties  on  the  citizens  of 
the  United  States  without  distinction  of  age,  sex  or 
condition,  with  an  eagerness  and  avidity  which  evince, 
that  the  general  nature  of  his  charge  harmonized 
with  his  particular  disposition.  They  should  have 
been  satisfied  from  the  other  testimony  adduced,  that 
these  enormities  were  committed  by  savages  acting 
under  his  commission ;  but  the  number  of  the  procla 
mations  which,  at  different  times,  were  left  in  houses, 
the  inhabitants  of  which  were  killed  or  carried  away 
by  the  Indians,  one  of  which  proclamations  is  in  pos 
session  of  the  Board,  under  the  hand  and  seal  of 
Governor  Hamilton,  puts  this  fact  beyond  a  doubt." 

"At  the  time  of  his  captivity,"  continues  the 
Council,  "it  appears  he  had  sent  considerable  bodies  of 
Indians  against  the  frontier  settlements  of  these  states, 
and  had  actually  appointed  a  great  council  of  Indians 
to  meet  him  at  [the  mouth  of  the]  Tennessee,  to  con 
cert  the  operations  of  this  present  campaign.  They 
find  that  his  treatment  of  our  citizens  and  soldiers, 
taken  and  carried  within  the  limits  of  his  command  has 
been  cruel  and  inhuman ;  that  in  the  case  of  John 
Dodge,  a  citizen  of  these  States,  which  has  been  par 
ticularly  stated  to  this  Board,  he  loaded  him  with 
irons  threw  him  into  a  dungeon,  without  bedding, 
without  straw,  without  fire,  .in  the  dead  of  winter  and 
severe  climate  of  Detroit;  that,  in  the  state,  he  wasted 
him  with  incessant  expectations  of  death ;  that  when 
the  rigors  of  his  situation  had  brought  him  so  low  that 
death  seemed  likely  to  withdraw  him  from  their  power, 
he  was  taken  out  and  somewhat  attended  to,  until  a 


380       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

little  mended ;  and  before  he  had  recovered  ability  to 
walk,  was  again  returned  to  his  dungeon,  in  which  a 
hole  was  cut  seven  inches  square  only,  for  the  admis 
sion  of  air,  and  the  same  load  of  irons  again  put  on 
him;  that  appearing,  a  second  time  in  imminent  dan 
ger  of  being  lost  to  them,  he  was  again  taken  from 
his  dungeon  in  which  he  had  lain  from  Janu 
ary  till  June,  with  the  intermission  of  a  few  weeks 
only,  before  mentioned ;  that  Governor  Hamilton  gave 
standing  rewards  for  scalps,  but  offered  none  for  pris 
oners,  which  induced  the  Indians,  after  making  their 
captives  carry  their  baggage  into  the  neighborhood  of 
the  fort  [Detroit],  there  to  put  them  to  death,  and 
carry  in  their  scalps  to  the  Governor,  who  welcomed 
their  return  and  success  by  a  discharge  of  cannon; 
that  when  a  prisoner,  brought  alive,  and  destined  to 
death  by  the  Indians,  the  fire  already  kindled,  and  him 
self  bound  to  the  stake,  was  dexterously  withdrawn, 
and  secreted  from  them  by  the  humanity  of  a  fellow 
prisoner,  a  large  reward  was  offered  for  the  discovery 
of  the  victim,  which  having  tempted  a  servant  to  be 
tray  his  concealment,  the  present  prisoner,  Dejean,  be 
ing  sent  with  a  party  of  soldiers,  surrounded  the 
house,  took  and  threw  into  jail  the  unhappy  victim  and 
his  deliverer,  where  the  former  soon  expired  under  the 
perpetual  assurances  of  Dejean,  that  he  was  to  be 
again  restored  into  the  hands  of  the  savages,  and  the 
latter,  when  enlarged,  was  bitterly  reprimanded  by 
Governor  Hamilton." 

"It  appears  to  them,"  the  Council  adds,  "that  the 
prisoner,  Dejean,  was  on  all  occasions,  the  willing  and 
cordial  instrument  of  Governor  Hamilton,  —  acting 
both  as  judge  and  keeper  of  the  jails,  and  instigating 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      381 

and  urging  him,  by  malicious  insinuations  and  un 
truths,  to  increase,  rather  than  relax  his  severities, 
hightening  the  cruelty  of  his  orders  by  the  manner  oi 
executing  them ;  offering,  at  one  time,  a  reward  to  one 
man  [a  prisoner]  to  be  the  hangman  of  another, 
threatening  his  life  on  refusal ;  and  taking  from  his 
prisoners  the  little  property  their  opportunities  en 
abled  them  to  acquire." 

"It  appears  that  the  prisoner,  Lamothe,"  says  the 
Council  further,  "was  a  captain  of  the  volunteer  scalp 
ing  parties  of  Indians  and  whites,  who  went,  from  time 
to  time,  under  general  orders  to  spare  neither  men, 
women,  nor  children."  Then,  to  begin  their  summing 
up,  the  Council  say : 

"From  this  detail  of  circumstances  which  arose  in 
a  few  cases  only,  coming  accidentally  to  the  knowl 
edge  of  the  Board,  they  think  themselves  authorized 
by  fair  deduction  to  presume  what  would  be  the  hor 
rid  history  of  the  sufferings  of  the  many  who  have  ex 
pired  under  their  miseries  (which,  therefore,  will  re 
main  forever  untold),  or  who  have  escaped  from  them 
and  are  yet  too  remote  and  too  much  dispersed  to 
bring  together  their  well-founded  accusations  against 
these  prisoners." 

"They  [the  Council]  have  seen  that  the  conduct 
of  the  British  officers,  civil  and  military,  has  in  the 
whole  course  of  this  war  been  savage,  and  unprece 
dented  among  civilized  nations ;  that  our  officers  taken 
by  them,  have  been  confined  in  crowded  jails,  loath 
some  dungeons  and  prison  ships,  loaded  with  irons, 
supplied  often  with  no  food,  generally  with  too  little 
for  the  sustenance  of  nature  and  that  little  sometimes 
unsound  and  unwholesome,  whereby  such  numbers 


382       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

have  perished,  that  captivity  and  death  have  with  them 
been  almost  synonymous ;  that  they  have  been  trans 
ported  beyond  seas,  where  their  fate  is  out  of  the 
reach  of  our  inquiry,  have  been  compelled  to  take  arms 
against  their  country,  and  by  a  refinement  in  cruelty, 
to  become  murderers  of  their  own  brethren. 

"Their  prisoners  with  us  have,  on  the  other  hand, 
been  treated  with  humanity  and  moderation ;  they  have 
been  fed  on  all  occasions,  with  wholesome  and  plenti 
ful  food,  suffered  to  go  at  large  within  extensive  tracts 
of  country,  treated  with  liberal  hospitality,  permitted 
to  live  in  the  families  of  our  citizens,  to  labor  for  them 
selves,  to  acquire  and  enjoy  profits,  and  finally  to  par 
ticipate  of  the  principal  benefits  of  society,  privileged 
from  all  burdens. 

"Reviewing  this  contrast,  which  cannot  be  denied 
by  our  enemies  themselves,  in  a  single  point,  and 
which  has  now  been  kept  up  during  four  years  of  un 
remitting  war,  a  term  long  enough  to  produce  well- 
founded  despair  that  our  moderation  may  ever  lead 
them  to  the  practice  of  humanity;  called  on  by  that 
justice  we  owe  to  those  who  are  fighting  the  battles  of 
our  country,  to  deal  out,  at  length,  miseries  to  their 
enemies,  measure  for  measure,  and  to  distress  the  feel 
ings  of  mankind  by  exhibiting  to  them  spectacles  of 
severe  retaliation,  where  we  had  long  and  vainly  en 
deavored  to  introduce  an  emulation  in  kindness ;  hap 
pily  possessed,  by  the  fortune  of  war,  of  some  of  those 
very  individuals  who,  having  distinguished  themselves 
personally  in  this  line  of  cruel  conduct,  are  fit  subjects 
to  begin  on,  with  the  work  of  retaliation ;  this  Board 
has  resolved  to  advise  the  Governor  that  the  said 
Henry  Hamilton,  Philip  Dejean  and  William  La- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      383 

mothe,  prisoners  of  war,  be  put  in  irons,  confined  in 
the  dungeon  of  the  public  jail,  debarred  the  use  of  pen, 
ink  and  paper,  and  excluded  all  converse  except  with 
their  keeper."* 

It  is  evident  that  a  considerable  part  of  the  find 
ing  by  the  Council  against  Hamilton  and  Dejean  was 
predicated  upon  what  had  been  "particularly  stated" 
to  the  Board  by  Dodge.f  The  "latter,  after  a  great 
deal  of  ill  treatment  in  Detroit  by  Hamilton  as  he 
claimed,  had  been  taken  a  prisoner  to  Quebec.  He 
subsequently  escaped,  reaching  Boston  in  safety. 
From  that  place,  he  made  his  way  finally  to  Pitts- 
burgh.J 

The  prisoners  remained  in  Chesterfield  until  the 
fifteenth  of  June.  On  that  day,  an  officer  having  a 
written  order  under  the  hand  of  the  Governor  of  the 
State  —  Thomas  Jefferson  —  for  taking  the  Lieuten 
ant-Governor  in  irons  to  Williamsburg,  reached  the 
former  place.  "I  was  accordingly  handcuffed,"  says 
Hamilton,  "put  upon  a  horse,  and  my  servant  not  be 
ing  suffered  to  go  with  me,  my  valise  was  fastened 
behind  me.  Captain  Lamothe  was  ordered  to  accom 
pany  me,  being  in  like  manner  handcuffed." 

"The  fatigues  of  the  march,"  continues  the  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor,  "having  heated  my  blood  to  a  violent 
degree,  I  had  several  large  boils  on  my  legs.  My 

*  These  proceedings  of  the  Virginia  Council  were  pub 
lished  the  next  day  (June  16,  1779),  in  the  Virginia  Gazette. 
They  are  to  be  found,  also,  in  Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p. 
226  n,  and  in  other  publications. 

t  Compare  in  this  connection  Andrew  McFarland  Davis's 
article,  "The  Indians  and  the  Border  Warfare  of  the  Revolu 
tion,"  in  Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America, 
vol.  VI,  p.  683. 

%  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Notes  IV  and  CXII. 


384       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

handcuffs  were  too  tight,  but  were  eased  at  a  smith's 
shop  on  the  road.  Thus  sometimes  riding  and  some 
times  walking,  we  arrived  the  second  evening  at  Wil- 
liamsburgh,  having  come  sixty  miles.  We  were  con 
ducted  to  the  palace,  where  we  remained  about  half  an 
hour  in  the  street  at  the  Governor's  door,  in  wet 
clothes,  weary,  hungry  and  thirsty,  but  had  not  even  a 
cup  of  water  offered  tis.  During  this  time,  a  consid 
erable  mob  gathered  about  us,  which  accompanied  us 
to  jail.  On  our  arrival  there,  we  were  put  into  a  cell, 
not  ten  feet  square,  where  we  found  five  criminals  and 
Mr.  Dejean,  who  was  also  handcuffed.  This  poor 
man  could  not  refrain  from  tears  on  seeing  our  equip 
ment.  We  had  the  floor  for  a  bed;  the  five  felons 
were  as  happy  as  rum  could  make  them ;  and  so  we 
were  left  to  our  repose  for  that  night."* 

And  thus  Lieutenant  Schieffelin : 

"JUNE  1 5th.  An  American  officer  came  to  them 
[the  prisoners]  from  Williamsburg  with  orders  to  lay 
Governor  Hamilton  in  irons,  with  Capt.  Lamothe, 
which  piece  of  cruelty  was  performed  before  his  of 
ficers,  who  shed  tears  of  indignation  that  their  worthy 
Chief  should  be  so  treated.  They  were  marched  on 
foot,  handcuffed,  through  rain,  their  wrists  much  hurt 
from  the  chafing  of  the  irons ;  they  would  not  allow 
him  his  waiting-boy.  They  were  marched,  in  great 
pomp,  through  Williamsburg  city,  and  committed  to 
the  dungeon  with  felons,  murderers,  and  condemned 
criminals ;  not  so  much  as  a  blanket  allowed  them."f 

The  Virginia  Council  having  given  Jefferson, 
who,  since  the  first  day  of  June  had  been  Governor  of 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
t  Loose  Notes,  already  cited. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       385 

the  State,  their  advice  to  lay  the  three  prisoners  in 
irons,  an  order  was  issued  in  accordance  therewith. 
"The  next  day  [after  their  arrival  in  Williamsburg, 
which  was  on  the  sixteenth]  we  three,"  says  Hamil 
ton,  "were  taken  out  about  n  o'clock,  and,  before  a 
number  of  people,  our  handcuffs  were  taken  off  and 
fetters  put  on  in  exchange.  I  was  honored  with  the 
largest,  which  weighed  eighteen  pounds  eight  ounces. 
As  I  thought  opportunities  might  not  offer  frequently, 
and  seeing  some  of  the  delegates  [members  of  the  Vir 
ginia  Assembly]  present,  I  took  occasion,  while  my 
irons  were  riveting  to  speak  a  few  words.  I  told  them 
that  the  ignominious  manner  in  which  we  were 
treated,  without  any  proof  of  criminality,  or  any  hear 
ing,  without  even  a  crime  being  laid  to  our  charge,  was 
a  reproach  to  those  only  who  could  act  in  that  man 
ner  to  prisoners  of  war,  under  the  sanction  of  a  ca 
pitulation;  that  after  a  proceeding  so  unjust,  I  was 
prepared  for  any  extremity,  but  desired  the  persons 
present  to  observe  that  punishment  was  exercised  on 
us  before  any  inquiry  had  taken  place  or  before  any 
persons  who  might  have  accused  us  had  been  con 
fronted  with  us  ;  —  some  by  their  jestures  appeared  to 
feel  for  us,  but  no  one  uttered  a  word,  and  when  our 
fetters  were  properly  fixed,  we  were  remanded  to  our 
dungeon,  from  which  the  five  felons  were  removed."* 
The  indignant  Schieffelin  says :  "Their  [the 
prisoners']  handcuffs  were  knocked  off;  and  heavy 
chains  put  on  their  legs  before  great  numbers  of  peo 
ple.  Mr.  Dejean,  justice  of  peace  for  Detroit,  was 
also  put  in  irons  for  reasons  of  State  retaliation. "f 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781,  —  Germain  MSS, 

t  Loose  Notes,  before  cited 

25 


386       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

A  friend,  on  the  fifth  of  July,  dispatched  to 
Dodge,  at  Pittsburgh  (where  the  latter  had  remained 
since  his  arrival  from  the  East  after  escaping  from 
Quebec),  a  letter,  inclosing  the  proceedings  of  the  Vir 
ginia  Council  as  to  Hamilton,  Lamothe  and  Dejean, — 
that,  for  some  time,  they  had  been  loaded  with  irons. 
This  friend  was  one  Andrew  Robinson.  He  wrote  that 
he  had  previously  been  called  on  by  the  Virginia  Coun 
cil  to  give  evidence  as  to  Dodge's  character,  "which  I 
gave,"  says  the  writer,  "to  your  advantage."  Robin 
son  also  wrote  that  he  was  "engaged  to  secrecy,  as  the 
Governor  and  Council  were  jealous  that  he  [Hamil 
ton]  might,  if  acquainted  with  their  intention  of  retal 
iation,  endeavor  to  escape."  He  gave  information 
that  the  Lieutenant-Governor  was  "loaded  with  heavy 
irons,"  but  that  he  was  very  severe  in  his  denuncia 
tions  of  Dodge,  and  that  numbers  were  drawn  to  con 
dole  with  him  and  cry  out  against  his  accuser.  He 
adds:  "I  have  gone  some  lengths  to  justify  you  and 
assure  all  of  them  [members  of  the  Council]  that  you 
will  appear  and  confront  Mr.  Hamilton,  as  he  and 
Dejean  both  wish  to  be  face  to  face."  Robinson  in 
formed  Dodge  also  that  he  (Dodge)  had  a  letter  of  the 
Governor,  for  his  going  to  Williamsburg,  and  he 
hoped  he  would  go  without  delay.  "I  wish  to  see  you 
and  give  you  the  letter;  but  I  desire  you  not  to  wait 
for  it."* 

Dodge  at  once  resolved  to  make  a  trip  from  Pitts 
burgh  to  the  Virginia  capital ;  —  he  would  go  imme 
diately  —  still  be  delayed  starting.  He  found  an  op 
portunity  to  send  a  letter  to  a  friend  of  his  —  a  trader 
—  at  Sandusky.  "It  is,"  said  he,  "with  pleasure  that 

*Haldimand  MSS, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       387 

I  inform  you  that  I  have  made  my  escape  from  Que 
bec.  I  have  the  honor  of  wearing  a  captain's  com 
mission,  and  have  the  managing  of  Indian  affairs. 
You  may  depend  on  seeing  me  this  fall  with  a  good 
army."  "I  am  going  to  Williamsburg  in  a  few  days," 
he  added,  "to  prosecute  Hamilton,  and  that  rascal,  De- 
jean;  [also]  Lamothe;  likewise  .  .  .  [Major 
Hay].  They  will  be  all  hanged  without  redemption 
and  the  Lord  have  mercy  on  their  souls.  My  compli 
ments  to  all  the  good  Whigs  of  Detroit  —  money 
plenty  —  fine  times  for  the  sons  of  liberty!  I  am 
just  now  drinking  your  health  with  a  good  glass  of 
madeira.  God  bless  you  all.  We  will  soon  relieve 
you  from  those  tyrants  !"* 

A  printed  copy  of  the  order  of  the  Virginia  Coun 
cil  in  regard  to  Hamilton,  Dejean  and  Lamothe  was 
transmitted  to  Washington  on  the  23d  of  June. 

The  British  General,  William  Phillips,  soon  pro 
tested  to  Jefferson  against  the  treatment  administered 
to  the  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Detroit.  He  wrote 
him  a  lengthy  and  temperate  letter,  to  the  effect  that 
the  putting  in  irons  and  confinement  of  Hamilton 
could  not  be  justified,  upon  military  principles,  even 
if  the  charges  against  him  were  true.  Had  he  been 
captured,  or  had  he  surrendered  at  discretion,  Gen 
eral  Phillips  acknowledged  that  he  would  have  been 
at  the  mercy  of  his  enemies ;  "but  since  he  had  capitu 
lated  upon  honorable  terms,  which  were  signed  in  the 
usual  form  by  both  parties,  he  could  not  be  made  ac 
countable  for  alleged  previous  misdemeanors,  with- 

*  Dodge  to  Philip  Boyle,  July  13,  1779.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  It  was  not  at  Pittsburgh  that  Dodge  was  to  have  "the 
managing  of  Indian  affairs,"  but  in  the  Illinois, 


388       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

out  the  violation  of  a  compact  which  had  always  been 
considered  sacred  by  civilized  nations."* 

On  the  seventeenth  of  July,  Jefferson  wrote 
Washington  concerning  the  subject  of  General  Phil 
lips'  letter.  "I  some  time  ago  inclosed  to  you,"  said 
the  Governor,  "a  printed  copy  of  an  order  of  Council, 
by  which  Governor  Hamilton  was  to  be  confined  in 
irons  and  in  close  jail.  This  has  occasioned  a  letter 
from  General  Phillips,  of  which  the  inclosed  is  a  copy. 
The  General  seems  to  suppose  that  a  prisoner  on  ca 
pitulation  cannot  be  put  into  close  confinement, 
though  his  capitulation  shall  not  have  provided  against 
it.  My  idea  was  that  all  persons  taken  in  war  were  to 
be  deemed  prisoners  of  war ;  that  those  who  surren 
dered  on  capitulation  (or  Convention)  are  prisoners 
of  war  also,  subject  to  the  same  treatment  with  those 
who  surrender  at  discretion,  except  only  so  far  as  the 
terms  of  their  capitulation  or  Convention  shall  have 
guarded  them.  In  the  capitulation  of  Governor  Ham 
ilton  (a  copy  of  which  I  inclose),  no  stipulation  is 
made  as  to  the  treatment  of  himself  or  those  taken 
with  him.  The  Governor,  indeed,  when  he  signs  adds 
a  flourish  of  reasons  inducing  him  to  capitulate,  one  of 
which  is  the  generosity  of  his  enemy.  Generosity,  on 
a  large  and  comprehensive  scale,  seems  to  dictate  the 
making  a  signal  example  of  this  gentleman ;  but  waiv 
ing  that,'  these  are  only  the  private  motives  inducing 
him  to  surrender,  and  do  not  enter  into  the  contract  of 
Colonel  Clark." 

Jefferson  added  that  he  had  "the  highest  idea  of 
the  sacredness  of  those  contracts  which  take  place  be- 

*  Jared  Sparks.  See  the  Writings  of  George  Washington 
(Worthington  Chauncey  Ford's  edition,  1890),  vol.  VIII,  p. 
5,  note. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,,  ETC.       389 

tween  nation  and  nation  at  war,"  and  that  he  "would 
be  among  the  last  on  earth  who  should  do  anything  in 
violation  of  them."  He  could  find  nothing  in  those 
books  usually  recurred  to  as  testimonials  of  the  laws 
and  usages  of  nature  and  nations  which  convicted  the 
opinions  he  had  expressed,  of  error;  yet  there  might 
be  such  an  usage  as  General  Phillips  seemed  to  sup 
pose,  though  not  taken  notice  of  by  these  writers. 

Jefferson's  particular  object  in  writing  Washing 
ton  was  to  get  from  him  information  upon  the  point 
made  by  General  Phillips.  He  declared  to  the  Com 
mander-in-chief  that  there  was  no  other  person  whose 
decision  would  so  authoritatively  decide  the  doubt  in 
the  public  mind,  and  none  with  which  he  was  disposed 
so  to  comply.  "If  you  shall  be  of  the  opinion,"  said 
he,  "that  the  bare  existence  of  a  capitulation  in  the 
case  of  Governor  Hamilton,  privileges  him  from  con 
finement,  though  there  be  no  article  to  that  effect  in 
the  capitulation,  justice  shall  most  assuredly  be  done 
him."* 

When  the  confinement  in  the  Williamsburg  jail, 
of  Hamilton,  Lamothe  and  Dejean  became  known  to 
Captain  Lernoult,  at  Detroit,  he  addressed  a  letter  to 
the  Executive  of  Virginia,  asking  the  reasons  for  this 
treatment  and  remonstrating  against  it.  This  on  the 
twenty-second  of  July,  was  answered  by  Governor 
Jefferson : 

"I  think  you,  sir,  who  have  had  as  good  opportu 
nities  as  any  British  officer,  of  learning  in  what  man 
ner  we  treat  those  whom  the  fortune  of  war  has  put 
into  our  hands,  can  clear  us  from  the  charge  of  rigors, 
as  far  as  your  knowledge  or  information  has  extended. 

*  Jefferson's  Works. 


390       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

I  can  assert  that  Governor  Hamilton's  is  the  first  in 
stance  which  has  occurred  in  my  own  country ;  and  if 
there  has  been  another  in  any  of  the  United  States  it 
is  unknown  to  me.  These  instances  must  have  been 
extremely  rare,  if  they  have  existed  at  all,  as  they 
could  not  have  been  altogether  unheard  of  by  me. 

"When  a  uniform  exercise  of  kindness  to  prison 
ers  on  our  part  has  been  returned  by  as  uniform  sever 
ity  on  the  part  of  our  enemies,  you  must  excuse  me  for 
saying  it  is  high  time,  by  other  lessons,  to  teach  re 
spect  to  the  dictates  of  humanity.  In  such  a  case,  re 
taliation  becomes  an  act  of  benevolence." 

"But  suppose,  sir,"  continues  Jefferson,  "we  are 
willing  still  longer  to  decline  the  drudgery  of  general 
retaliation,  yet  Governor  Hamilton's  conduct  has  been 
such  as  to  call  for  exemplary  punishment  on  him  per 
sonally.  In  saying  this,  I  have  not  so  much  his  par 
ticular  cruelties  to  our  citizens,  prisoners  with  him 
(which,  although  they  have  been  great,  were  of  nece- 
sity  confined  to  a  small  scale),  as  the  general  nature 
of  the  service  he  undertook  at  Detroit,  and  the  exten 
sive  exercise  of  cruelties  which  that  involved.  Those 
who  act  together  in  war  are  answerable  to  each  other. 
"I  will  not  say  to  what  length  the  fair  rules  of  war 
would  extend  the  right  of  punishment  against  him ; 
but  I  am  sure  that  confinement  under  its  strictest  cir 
cumstances  as  a  retaliation  for  Indian  devastation  and 
massacre,  must  be  deemed  lenity."  .  .  . 

"The  proclamation  alluded  to  [by  the  Council]," 
says  the  Virginia  Governor,  further,  "contained  noth 
ing  more  than  an  invitation  to  our  officers  and  soldiers 
to  join  the  British  arms  against  those  whom  he  is 
pleased  to  call  rebels  and  traitors.  In  order  to  intro- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       391 

duce  these  among  our  people,  they  were  put  into  the 
hands  of  the  Indians,  and  in  every  house  where  they 
murdered  or  carried  away  the  family  they  left  one  of 
these  proclamations.  Some  of  them  were  found  stick 
ing  in  the  breasts  of  the  persons  murdered,  one  under 
the  hand  and  seal  of  Governor  Hamilton  came  to  our 
hands.  The  Indians  being  the  bearer  of  proclama 
tions  under  the  hand  and  seal  of  Governor  Hamilton 
(no  matter  what  was  the  subject  of  them),  there  can 
be  no  doubt  they  were  acting  under  his  direction ;  and, 
as  including  this  proof,  the  fact  was  cited  on  the  ad 
vice  of  the  Council. 

"No  distinction  can  be  made  between  the  princi 
pal  and  ally  by  those  against  whom  the  war  is  waged. 
He  who  employs  another  to  do  a  deed,  makes  the  deed 
his  own.  If  he  calls  in  the  hand  of  the  assassin  or 
murderer,  himself  becomes  the  assassin  or  murderer. 
The  known  rule  of  warfare  with  the  Indian  savages  is, 
an  indiscriminate  butchery  of  men,  women  and  chil 
dren.  These  savages  under  this  well-known  charac 
ter,  are  employed  by  the  British  nation  as  allies  in  the 
war  against  Americans.  Governor  Hamilton  under 
takes  to  be  the  conductor  of  the  war.  In  the  execu 
tion  of  that  undertaking,  he  associates  small  parties  of 
whites  under  his  immediate  command  with  large  par 
ties  of  the  savages,  and  sends  them  to  act  sometimes 
jointly,  sometimes  separately,  —  not  against  our  forts 
or  armies  in  the  field,  but  against  the  farming  settle 
ments  on  our  frontiers.  Governor  Hamilton,  then,  is 
himself  the  butcher  of  men,  women  and  children." 

"A  proclamation  addressed  to  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Illi 
nois,  afterward  printed  in  the  public  papers  —  which  though 
it  does  not  in  express  terms  threaten  vengeance,  blood  and 
massacre,  yet  it  proves  that  Hamilton  had  made  for  us  the 


392       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

most  ample  provision  for  all  these  calamities.  He  then  gives 
in  detail  the  horrid  catalogue  of  savage  nations,  extending 
from  south  to  north,  whom  he  had  leagued  with  himself  to 
wage  combined  war  on  our  frontiers ;  and  it  is  well  known 
that  that  war  would  of  course,  be  made  up  of  blood  and 
general  massacre  of  men,  women  and  children.  Other  papers 
of  Governor  Hamilton  have  come  to  our  hands,  containing 
instructions  to  officers  going  out  with  scalping-parties  of 
Indians  and  whites  and  proving  that  that  kind  of  war  was 
waged  under  his  express  orders.  Further  proof  in  abundance 
might  be  added,  but  I  suppose  the  fact  too  notorious  to  need 
them."* 

Jefferson,  after  discussing  the  question  as  to 
whether  Hamilton,  being  a  prisoner  by  capitulation 
was  privileged  or  not  from  strict  confinement  —  tak 
ing  the  ground  that  he  was  not  —  says  :  "However, 
we  waive  reasoning  on  this  head,  because  no  article  in 
the  capitulation  of  Governor  Hamilton  is  violated  by 
his  confinement. 

"Perhaps,"  adds  Jefferson,  "not  having  seen  the 
capitulation,  you  were  led  to  suppose  it  a  thing  of 
course,  that,  being  able  to  obtain  terms  of  surrender, 
they  [Hamilton  and  his  party]  would  first  provide  for 
their  own  treatment.  I  inclose  you  a  copy  of  the  ca 
pitulation,  by  which  you  will  see  that  the  second  ar 
ticle  declares  them  prisoners  of  war,  and  nothing  is 
said  as  to  the  treatment  they  were  entitled  to.  When 
Governor  Hamilton  signs,  indeed,  he  adds  a  flourish 
containing  the  motives  inducing  him  to  capitulate,  one 
of  which  was,  confidence  in  a  generous  enemy.  He 

*  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  I,  p.  321.  The 
proclamation  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  Illinois  was,  as  before 
shown,  dated  at  Vincennes,  Dec.  29,  1778,  and  published  in  the 
Virginia  Gazette,  June  26,  1779.  It  was  the  one  handed  to 
Beaubien,  already  mentioned. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       393 

should  have  reflected  that  generosity  on  a  large  scale 
would  take  side  against  him.  However,  these  were 
only  his  private  motives  and  did  not  enter  into  con 
tract  with  Colonel  Clark.  Being  prisoner  of  war  then, 
with  only  such  privileges  as  their  capitulation  has  pro 
vided,  and  that  having  provided  nothing  on  the  sub 
ject  of  their  treatment,  they  are  liable  to  be  treated  as 
other  prisoners.  We  have  not  extended  our  order  as 
we  might  justifiably  have  done  to  the  whole  of  this 
corps.  Governor  Hamilton  and  Captain  Lamothe 
alone  as  leading  offenders  are  in  confinement.  The 
other  officers  and  men  are  treated  as  if  they  had  been 
taken  in  justifiable  war;  the  officers  being  at  large  on 
their  parole,  and  the  men  also  having  their  liberty  to  a 
certain  extent.  Dejean  was  not  included  in  the  ca 
pitulation,  being  taken  eight  days  after,  on  the  Wa- 
bash,  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  from  Vincennes." 

"I  hope,  sir,"  concludes  Jefferson,  "that,  being 
made  more  fully  acquainted  with  the  facts  on  which 
the  advice  of  Council  was  grounded,  and  exercising 
your  own  good  sense  in  cool  and  candid  deliberation 
on  these  facts,  and  the  consequences  deducted  from 
them  according  to  the  usage  and  sentiments  of  civil 
ized  nations,  you  will  see  the  transaction  in  a  very  dif 
ferent  light  from  that  in  which  it  appeared  at  the  time 
of  writing  your  letter;  and  [that  you  will]  ascribe  the 
advice  of  the  Council  not  to  want  of  attention  to  the 
sacred  nature  of  public  conventions,  of  which  I  hope 
we  shall  never  in  any  circumstances  lose  sight,  but  to 
a  desire  of  stopping  the  effusion  of  the  unoffending 
blood  of  women  and  children  and  the  unjustifiable  se- 


394      HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

verities  exercised  on  our  captive  officers  and  soldiers 
in  general,  by  proper  severities  on  our  part."* 

It  is  to  be  noticed  that,  in  his  reply,  Jefferson  not 
once  alludes  to  Dodge,  or  to  the  particulars  furnished 
by  him  to  the  Virginia  Council.  Had  the  Governor 
come  to  doubt  the  truth  of  his  narrative?  It  seems 
not;  for  as  will  presently  be  seen,  he  subsequently 
wrote  that,  as  to  particular  acts  of  barbarity  on  Ham 
ilton's  part  to  citizens  of  the  United  States,  he  (Jeffer 
son)  had  "as  sacred  assurances  as  human  testimony 
was  capable  of  giving."  Nevertheless,  for  fear  he 
had,  possibly,  been  imposed  upon,  he  would  not  (such 
is  the  inference)  rest  the  case  in  any  wise  upon  that 
evidence,  in  his  reply  to  Lernoult. 

That  the  Governor  desired  to  see  Dt»dge  in  Wil- 
liamsburg,  to  the  end  that  the  latter  might  meet  his 
arch-adversary  and,  in  hearing  of  the  Executive, 
charge  Hamilton  with  his  crimes  was  what  he  ex 
pected  of  Jefferson  in  view  of  the  emphatic  denial  on 
part  of  the  prisoners  of  what  had  been  alleged  against 
them,  and  does  not  imply  any  doubt  on  part  of  the 
Virginia  Governor  of  the  statements  previously  made 
by  Dodge.  The  resolution  of  the  latter  at  once  to 
leave  Pittsburg  for  the  Virginia  capital  was  not,  it 
seems,  carried  out.  As  the  sequel  shows,  he  was  in 
no  especial  hurry  to  confront  the  three  prisoners  — 
Hamilton,  Dejean  and  Lemothe  —  "face  to  face."f 

*  Ibid.  The  reply  of  Jefferson,  in  some  of  its  parts,  is 
illegible  and  therefore  not  printed  in  the  work  just  cited. 
This  has  caused  an  arrangement  of  some  of  the  words,  as 
given  in  the  text  above,  different  from  that  found  in  the 
Virginia  Calendar. 

t  Appendix,  Note  CXIL 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

HAMILTON  gives  a  dolorous  description  of  the 
condition  of  the  jail  in  which  the  three  pris 
oners —  himself,  Lamothe  and  Dejean  — 
were  confined:  ''The  light  we  received  was  from  a 
grate,  which  faced  the  court  of  twenty  feet  square, 
with  walls  thirty  feet  high.  The  prison  having  been 
built  sixty  years,  it  may  be  conceived  we  were  sub 
ject  to  one  very  offensive  convenience,  in  the  heat  of 
the  summer  almost  suffocating.  Our  door  was  only 
opened  to  give  us  water.  We  were  not  allowed  any 
candle;  and,  from  the  first  to  the  last  of  our  confine 
ment,  we-  never  could  find  that  the  Governor  or  Council 
had  ordered  provision  of  any  kind  to  be  made  for  us 
except  water,  with  which  we  were  really  very  well 
supplied.  The  variety  of  vermin  to  which  we  were 
a  prey,  bad  air,  chagrin,  and  want  of  exercise,  began 
to  produce  their  effects  on  my  companions."* 

Because  of  this,  Hamilton  thought  to  procure  by 
writing  a  letter  to  the  Lieutenant  Governor  of  the 
State  (the  Governor  being  absent)  a  mitigation  of 
their  sufferings.  So,  having  obtained  from  the  jailor 
(who  was  left  sole  arbiter  to  deal  out  his  indulgence 
or  straighten  their  captivity)  pen,  ink,  and  paper,  he 
wrote  Mr.  Pelham,  who  had  procured  him  these  nec 
essary  articles : 

"Having  understood  from  you  yesterday,"  said 
Hamilton,  "that  the  Governor  [Jefferson]  was  gone 
to  the  country  to  stay  for  a  month,  I  request  you  to 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
(395) 


396       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

wait  on  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  present  my  respects 
to  him,  acquainting  him  that,  by  a  written  order 
signed  by  the  Governor,  I,  with  Mr.  Dejean  and  Cap 
tain  Lamothe,  have  been  ironed  and  thrown  into  a 
dungeon  where  we  have  now  lain  upwards  of  forty 
days;  that  we  have  not  been  informed  of  the  cause 
of  this  treatment:  we  do  not  hear  of  our  being  to  be 
confronted  with  our  accusers ;  we  hear  no  mention  of 
any  public  inquiry ;  we  suffer  without  trial." 

"We  understand/'  continued  the  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor,  "that  these  proceedings  are  not  agreeable  to 
the  laws  of  this  province,  or  to  any  known  rule  of 
equity ;  that  it  is  inconsistent  with  the  tenor  of  the 
Governor's  oath,  and  breathes  the  genuine  spirit  of 
lettres  de  cachet  in  the  most  arbitrary  government. 
The  Governor's  departure  without  bestowing  a  thought 
on  men  in  our  situation  shows  that  we  may  suffer  in 
reputation,  health  and  loss  of  time,  with  as  little  pros 
pects  of  redress  as  if  we  were  in  the  cells  of  the 
inquisition." 

"Mr.  Pellham,  please  to  inform  the  Lieutenant 
Governor  [of  Virginia],"  added  Hamilton,  "that  I  do 
not  think  common  justice  to  be  less  the  birthright  of 
every  man,  than  the  enjoyment  of  life  and  liberty; 
but  that  since  our  arrival  in  this  state,  we  have  in  lieu 
of  common  justice,  experienced  uncommon  injustice. 
I  do,  therefore,  for  myself  and  the  gentlemen  confined 
with  me,  demand  justice  —  justice  as  open  to  the  public 
as  our  ill  treatment  has  been  notorious." 

The  next  day  after  the  writing  of  this  letter  it 
was  returned  to  Hamilton  "with  the  greatest  insolence 
of  contempt,"  as  he  puts  it.  He  was  informed  by  his 
jailor  "that  dignified  characters  in  that  country  were 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       397 

not  treated  with  so  little  ceremony."  Now,  as  the  mes 
sage  had  been  "contemptuously  refused,"  —  "I  was 
necessitated  to  lower  my  tone,"  the  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  declared,  "or  give  up  all  thoughts  of  redress." 
So  he  again  wrote,  but  this  time  directly  to  the  Lieu 
tenant  Governor  and  Council  of  the  State. 

"Mr.  Pelham,"  said  he,  "having  very  obligingly 
procured  me  the  means  of  addressing  you,  I  take  this 
first  opportunity  of  representing  to  you  the  circumstan 
ces  and  situation  of  the  two  gentlemen  at  present  in 
confinement  along  with  me.  I  am  to  suppose  they 
have  been  put  in  prison  for  having  acted  under  my 
orders ;  if  there  be  any  criminality  in  those  orders, 
justice  demands  that  I  alone  should  be  the  sufferer. 
I,  therefore,  make  it  my  request  that  I  may  suffer 
alone." 

"The  health  of  these  gentlemen,"  continued  Hamil 
ton,"  is  daily  impaired  by  the  consequences  of  their 
restraint,  as  they  are  in  want  of  even  a  change  of  linen, 
highly  necessary  at  this  sultry  season.  As  to  my 
own  conduct,  however  misrepresented,  I  have  con 
fidence  (which  will,  I  hope,  hereafter  appear  well 
grounded)  that  it  will  support  itself  against  the  at 
tacks  which  have  been  made  upon  it  in  this  country, 
and  that  it  will  abide  the  test  of  that  inquiry  which 
I  am  to  expect  it  will  undergo  whenever  I  shall  be 
called  upon  by  those  superiors  whose  orders  I  have 
endeavored  to  execute  with  humanity  and  moderation." 

"Gentlemen,  whatever  may  be  the  result  of  this 
application,"  added  the  prisoner,  "I  shall  with  pati 
ence  wait  for  the  day  when  I  may  more  largely  expose 
to  the  world  the  whole  tenor  of  my  conduct,  which 


398       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

I  have  all  the  reason  imaginable  to  think  has  been 
discolored  and  misrepresented." 

But  Hamilton  declared,  what  was  true,  that  the 
Virginia  Lieutenant  Governor  "never  deigned  an 
answer  to  his  letter.  But  soon  thereafter  the  prisoners 
got  knowledge  of  the  charges  that  had  been  preferred 
against  them  —  by  being  secretly  furnished  with  the 
"findings"  of  the  Council.  The  way  this  was  brought 
about  is  told  by  the  Lieutenant  Governor  himself. 
"Having  been,"  he  says,  "by  order  of  the  Governor 
(with  the  advice  of  his  Council)  prohibited  the  use  of 
pen,  ink  and  paper,  or  the  converse  of  any  one  but  our 
jailor,  we  had  no  employment  but  our  reflections.  At 
length,  the  prisoners  in  the  next  cell  contrived  to  thrust 
the  newspapers  through  a  hole,  and  in  them  we  found 
the  formal  charge  drawn  up  against  us,  entirely  un 
supported  by  truth  or  evidence."* 

On  the  twenty-sixth  of  August,  Hamilton  wrote 
Haldimand  from  the  jail  in  Williamsburg,  that  he 
had  drawn  bills  in  favor  of  Samuel  Beal  for  four 
hundred  pounds  sterling.  He  said  he  might  have  to 
draw  again,  as  there  were  eight  officers  and  eighteen 
men  of  his  party.  Dejean  and  Lamothe  as  well  as 
himself  had  been  in  confinement  seventy-five  days. 
Major  Hay,  with  the  other  prisoners  were  at  Chester 
field,  Virginia.f  In  explanation  of  this  drawing  of 
bills,  by  Hamilton,  it  may  be  stated  that  General  Phil 
lips  had  arranged  for  it  by  the  consent  of  the  Virginia 
authorities.  "General  Phillips,"  subsequently  wrote 
the  Lieutenant  Governor,  "knowing  our  situation,  had 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS, 
t  Haldimand  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       399 

sent  us  an  unlimited  credit ;  and  his  letter  having  passed 
to  us  through  the  hands  of  the  Governor  and  Council 
[of  Virginia],  we,  for  a  time,  lived  plentifully  and 
had  the  means  of  helping  out  the  miserable  ration  of 
the  prisoners ;  but,  after  a  while,  the  Executive  power 
ordered  our  purveyor  to  limit  our  allowance."* 

"Major  Hay,  Lieutenant  Schieffelin,  and  others, 
remained  at  Chesterfield,  under  a  guard,"  wrote  one 
of  the  prisoners,  subsequently,  who  was  there  confined, 
"until  the  twenty-eighth  of  August,  when  an  officer, 
with  a  party,  arrived  with  orders  to  march  them  imme 
diately  to  Williamsburg ;  to  keep  them  closely  confined 
at  nights ;  and,  in  every  instance,  to  let  them  know 
they  were  prisoners :  if  they  behaved  unbecoming,  to 
punish  them." 

On  the  thirty-first  of  the  month,  they  started  for 
the  capital.  "We  were  marched  on  foot,"  says  the 
same  chronicler,  "passed  through  Williamsburg  to  the 
common  jail,  where  they  kept  us  at  the  door  for  three 
or  four  hours,  when  the  jailor  showed  his  orders  to 
commit  us  in  close  confinement,  searching  us  before 
hand.  He  desired  us  to  follow  him  to  a  cell,  when 
the  dungeon  where  the  worthy  Governor  was  in,  was 
opened,  and  we  were  locked  therein.  We  were  now 
eight  in  number;  hardly  room  to  stretch  ourselves; 
no  one  permitted  to  confer  with  us.  Here  we  con 
tinued  for  the  long  space  of  eight  or  ten  days,  without 
ever  having  the-  door  once  opened.  The  criminals 
were  let  out  to  get  the  air  of  the  court,  but  we  were 
not.  On  the  eighth  day  some  of  us  fell  ill  at  twelve 
at  night  and  would  have  expired  had  not  blood  been 
immediately  let.  The  jailor  then  represented  the 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  — Germain  MSS. 


400       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

dreadful  situation  we  were  in  as  also  the  privates,  who 
were  confined  in  another  apartment,  when,  after 
some  deliberation,  the  infamous  Executive  Council 
indulged  us,  by  separating  the  officers,  namely,  Capt. 
Lamothe,  Lieut.  Schieffelin,  Mr.  Dejean  and  Surgeon 
McBearth,  from  the  others,  putting  them  in  an  upper 
apartment.  The  others  were  left  in  the  dungeon,  but 
the  doors  were  left  open  until  evening  when  they  were 
shut  at  the  same  time  that  those  of  the  criminals 
were."* 

"August  thirty-first,"  wrote  Hamilton,  afterwards, 
concerning  the  coming  on  of  the  residue  of  his  captive 
friends  at  his  jail,  "Major  Hay,  with  the  other  pris 
oners  from  Chesterfield,  arrived  at  Williamsburg ;  the 
soldiers  were  confined  in  the  debtors'  room.  The  offi 
cers,  five  in  number,  were  put  into  the  dungeon,  with 
us,  \vhich  made  the  heat  intolerable.  At  eleven  at 
night,  we  were  obliged  to  alarm  the  prisoners  in  the 
next  cell,  who  passed  the  word  to  the  guard,  for  the 
jaihr,  j —  our  surgeon  being  on  the  point  of  suffocating, 
an  asthma,  to  which  he  was  subject,  having  seized 
him,  at  this  time,  with  such  violence  that  he  lost  his 
pulse  for  ten  minutes.  We  had  tried,  by  wafting  a 
blanket,  to  draw  some  air  through  the  grate ;  but  this 
was  insufficient ;  and  if  we  had  not  had  presence  enough 
of  mind  to  open  a  vein,  he  probably  would  have  ex 
pired;  for  the  state  of  the  air  was  such  that  a  candle, 
with  which  we  had  lately  been  indulged,  would  barely 
live  if  held  near  the  top  of  the  cell." 

"The  jailor,"  continued  the  Lieutenant  Governor, 
"took  Mr.  McBearth  out  and  suffered  him  to  sleep  in 

*  Schieffelin :  Loose  Notes  —  Magazine  of  American  His 
tory,  vol.  I,  p.  189.  . 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      401 

his  own  room;  and  I  must  declare  in  justice  to  him, 
that,  in  several  points,  he  showed  more  feeling  by  far 
than  his  employers.  The  door  of  our  cell  continuing 
shut  for  several  days,  the  poor  prisoners  young  and 
old,  men  and  women,  offered  to  be  locked  up  and  de 
barred  the  use  of  the  court,  if  we  might  be  allowed 
the  liberty,  which  at  length  we  had." 

"The  humanity  and  attention  of  these  poor  people," 
adds  Hamilton,  "is  not  to  be  forgotten.  They  offered 
themselves  to  do  a  hundred  kind  offices;  cleaned  and 
washed  our  cell ;  showed  us  how  to  manage  our  irons ; 
wrapped  them  round  with  rags ;  offered  to  saw  them 
off  whenever  means  of  escape  were  presented :  but 
what  struck  me  most  was,  that  when  we  were  indulged 
with  the  use  of  the  court  and  sat  down  to  eat,  these 
people  always  withdrew.  Gratitude  calls  on  me  to 
mention  the  difference  of  characters  we  experienced 
from  the  leaders  in  this  country  and  those  subject  to 
their  control." 

"Being  attacked  with  a  fit  of  the  gout,"  concludes 
the  Lieutenant  Governor,  "a  surgeon  was  sent  for 
who  treated  me  with  the  greatest  tenderness.  By  this 
means,  my  fetters  were  taken  off  and  hand-cuffs  put 
on;  but  these  were  of  little  restraint;  for,  as  I  had 
fallen  away  considerably,  I  could  slip  my  hands 
through  them  with  ease." 

When  Washington  first  received  the  proceedings  of 
the  Virginia  Council  as  to  Hamilton  and  his  compan 
ions  he  had  no  doubt  of  the  propriety  of  the  treatment 
decreed  against  them.  He  believed  it  was  founded  in 
principles  of  a  just  retaliation.  But,  after  the  letter 
of  Jefferson,  of  the  seventeenth  of  July  came  to  hand, 

26 


402       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

and  upon  examining  the  matter  more  minutely,  at  the 
same  time  consulting  with  several  intelligent  general 
officers,  it  seemed  to  be  the  opinion  of  the  Commander- 
in-chief  —  and  on  the  sixth  of  August  he  wrote  Jeffer 
son  —  "that  Mr.  Hamilton  could  not,  according  to  the 
usage  of  war,  after  his  capitulation  even  in  the  man 
ner  it  was  made,  be  subjected  to  uncommon  severity, 
under  that  idea,  and  that  the  capitulation  placed  him 
upon  a  different  footing  from  that  of  a  mere  prisoner 
at  discretion." 

"Whether  -it  may  be  expedient,"  said  Washington, 
"to  continue  Hamilton  in  his  present  confinement  from 
motives  of  policy  and  to  satisfy  our  people,  is  a  ques 
tion  I  cannot  determine;  but  if  it  should  be,  I  would 
take  the  liberty  to  suggest  that  it  may  be  proper  to 
publish  all  the  cruelties  he  has  committed  or  abetted, 
in  a  particular  manner,  and  the  evidence  in  support  of 
the  charges,  that  the  world,  holding  his  conduct  in 
abhorrence,  may  feel  and  approve  the  justice  of  his 
fate.  Indeed,  whatever  may  be  the  line  of  conduct 
towards  him,  this  may  be  advisable.  If,  from  the 
considerations  I  have  mentioned,  the  rigor  of  his  treat 
ment  is  mitigated,  yet  he  cannot  claim  of  right,  upon 
any  ground,  the  extensive  indulgence  which  General 
Phillips  seems  to  expect  for  him ;  and  I  should  not 
hesitate  to  withhold  from  him  a  thousand  privileges 
I  might  allow  to  common  prisoners.  He  certainly 
merits  a  discrimination ;  and,  although  the  practice  of 
war  may  not  justify  all  the  measures  that  have  been 
taken  against  him,  he  may  unquestionably  without  any 
breach  of  public  faith  or  the  least  shadow  of  impu- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       403 

tation,  be  confined  to  a  room.  His  safe  custody  will 
be  an  object  of  great  importance."* 

The  arrival  of  Dodge  in  Williamsburg  as  requested 
by  his  friend  Robinson,  was  not  productive  of  results 
as  against  Hamilton,  Lamothe  and  Dejean,  who  were 
still  closely  confined  in  jail  at  that  place.  It  is  evident 
he  did  not  confront  these  men  in  their  dungeon, 
although  he  says  he  saw  them  there  in  irons  ;*  and  it 
is  doubtful  if  either  of  the  prisoners  were  aware  of 
his  presence.  He  soon  learned  that  in  no  event  were 
they  to  be  hanged ;  but  he  was  informed  they  would 
be  imprisoned  until  the  end  of  the  war.  He  got  his 
information  doubtless  before  the  arrival  of  Wash 
ington's  letter  at  the  Virginia  capital.  He  returned 
to  Pittsburgh  declaring  that  the  three  had  been  ironed 
and  thrown  into  the  dungeon  for  the  usage  they  had 
given  him  at  Detroit, f  which  was  undoubtedly  true, 
in  part,  as  to  Hamilton  and  Dejean,  but  wholly  errone 
ous  as  to  Lamothe. J 

On  the  receipt  of  Washington's  letter  of  the  sixth 
of  August  by  the  Virginia  Council  in  the  absence  of 
the  Governor,  that  body  on  the  twenty-ninth  of  Sep 
tember,  officially  promulgated  the  following: 

"The  Board  having  been,  at  no  time,  unmindful 
of  the  circumstances  attending  the  confinement  of 
Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton,  Captain  Lamothe  and 
Philip  Dejean,  which  the  personal  cruelties  of  those 
men,  as  well  as  the  general  conduct  of  the  enemy  had 

*  Writings  of  Washington  (Ford's  ed.),  vol.  VIII,  pp. 
4,  5. 

t  Dodge  to  Boyle,  Sept.  18,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 
|  See  Appendix  to  our  narative,  Note  CXII. 


404      HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

constrained  them  to  advise:  wishing  and  willing  to 
expect  that  their  sufferings  may  lead  them  to  the 
practice  of  humanity,  should  any  future  turn  of  for 
tune,  in  their  favor,  submit  to  their  discretion  the  fate 
of  their  fellow-creatures ;  that  it  may  prove  an  admo 
nition  to  others,  meditating  like  cruelties,  not  to  rely 
for  impunity  in  any  circumstances  of  distance  or  pre 
sent  security;  and  that  it  may  induce  the  enemy  to 
reflect,  what  must  be  the  painful  consequences,  should 
on  their  part  impel  us  again  to  severities,  while  such 
multiplied  subjects  of  retaliation  are  within  our  power: 
sensible  that  no  impression  can  be  made  on  the  event 
of  the  war  by  wreaking  vengeance  on  miserable  cap 
tives;  that  the  great  cause  which  has  animated  the 
two  nations  against  each  other  is  not  to  be  decided 
by  unmanly  cruelties  on  wretches,  who  have  bowed 
their  necks  to  the  power  of  the  victor,  but  by  the 
exercise  of  honorable  valor  in  the  field :  earnestly  hop 
ing  that  the  enemy,  viewing  the  subject  in  the  same 
light,  will  be  content  to  abide  the  event  of  that  mode 
of  decision,  and  spare  us  the  pains  of  a  second  depart 
ure  from  kindness  to  our  captives :  confident  that  com 
miseration  to  our  prisoners  is  the  only  possible  motive 
to  which  can  be  candidly  ascribed,  in  the  present  actual 
circumstances  of  the  war,  the  advice  we  are  now  about 
to  give;  the  Board  does  advise  the  Governor  to  send 
Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton,  Captain  Lamothe  and 
Philip  Dejean  to  Hanover  Court  House,  there  to  re 
main  at  large  within  certain  reasonable  limits  taking 
their  parole  in  the  usual  manner."* 

*  Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  230  n. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       405 

Thereupon  the  Board  ordered  the  irons  to  be  taken 
off  the  three  prisoners.*  Two  days  thereafter  a  parole 
was  made  out  and  tendered  them  also  Major  Hay, 
which,  among  other  things,  restrained  them  from  say 
ing  anything  to  the  prejudice  of  the  United  States. 
This  they  would  not  sign  —  they  insisted  on  the  "free 
dom  of  speech" ;  and,  in  consequence,  they  were  contin 
ued  in  prison,  though  not  ironed ;  "which  confinement," 
wrote  Jefferson  to  Washington,  on  the  same  day,  "must 
be  considered  as  a  voluntary  one,  until  they  can  deter 
mine  with  themselves  to  be  inoffensive  in  word  as  well 
as  in  deed.f 

"Governor  Hamilton  and  his  companions,"  also 
wrote  Jefferson  to  one  who  was  a  prisoner  to  the 
British  and  had  been  in  the  Lieutenant  Governor's 
power  but  who  now  pleaded  leniently  for  him,  in  hopes 
of  effecting  an  exchange  of  himself,  "were  imprisoned 
and  ironed,  first  in  retaliation  for  cruel  treatment  of 
our  captive  citizens  by  the  enemy  in  general;  (2d) 
for  the  barbarous  species  of  warfare  which  himself  and 
his  savage  allies  carried  on  in  our  western  frontier; 
(3d)  for  particular  acts  of  barbarity,  of  which  he  him 
self  was  personally  guilty,  to  some  of  our  citizens  in  his 
power.  Any  one  of  these  charges  was  sufficient  to 
justify  the  measure  we  took.  Of  the  truth  of  the  first 

*  "Seventy-five  days  they  [Hamilton,  Dejean  and  La- 
mothe]  were  loaded  with  irons  in  a  dungeon  nine  by  ten 
feet,  and  no  one  admitted  to  have  access  to  them  except  the 
jailors."  —  Schieffelin  :  Loose  Notes  —  Magazine  of  Amer 
ican  History,  vol.  I,  p.  189. 

f  Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  230  n.  Silas  Farmer  (History 
of  Detroit  and  Michigan,  p.  254),  infers  that  the  three  pris 
oners  were  a  second  time  ironed;  but  this  was  not  the  case; 
they  were  continued  in  prison,  but  not  again  fettered. 


406       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

yourself  are  witness.  Your  situation,  indeed,  seems 
to  have  been  better  since  you  were  sent  to  New  York; 
but  reflect  on  what  you  suffered  before  that,  and 
knew  others  of  your  countrymen  to  suffer,  and  what 
you  know  is  now  suffered  by  that  more  unhappy  part 
of  them  who  are  still  confined  on  board  of  the  prison 
ships  of  the  enemy.  Proofs  of  the  second  charge, 
we  have  under  Hamilton's  own  hand ;  and  of  the  third, 
as  sacred  assurances  as  human  testimony  is  capable 
of  giving.  Humane  conduct  on  our  part  was  found 
to  produce  no  effect;  the  contrary,  therefore,  was  to 
be  tried."* 

"As  we  had  suffered  already-,"  afterwards  wrote 
Hamilton,  in  giving  his  reasons  for  the  prisoners  not 
accepting  this  parole,  "from  the  simple  asseverations 
of  obscure  persons  —  one  of  whom,  John  Dodge,  was 
known  by  several  Virginians  to  be  an  unprincipled 
and  perjured  renegade,  and  as  we  had  experienced 
the  inhumanity  of  the  executive  power;  it  plainly  ap 
peared  that  this  parole  was  offered  for  no  other  motive 
than  to  lay  us  open  to  the  malice  of  the  first  informer, 
when  we  should  probably  have'  been  imprisoned  as 
before,  with  the  additional  stigma  of  having  broken 
our  parole,  which  it  was  next  to  impossible  to  observe 
in  all  its  parts. "f 

The  soldiers  who  formed  a  part  of  the  party  held 
in  confinement,  were,  on  the  ninth  of  October,  sent 
from  the  debtors'  room  in  the  jail  to  the  barrack, 
where,  being  allowed  to  cut  wood,  "a  part  was  sent 
to  the  jail  for  us,"  is  the  language  of  Hamilton.  "And 

*  Jefferson  to  Mathews,  Oct.  1779.  Memorandum  In  Pro 
ceedings  of  Virginia  Council,  MS. 

f  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       407 

even  the  American  soldiers  on  guard,"  he  added, 
"though  miserably  bare  of  clothing  themselves,  used 
to  share  a  part  of  their  own  fuel  for  dressing  our  vic 
tuals."*  On  the  eleventh,  Dejean  and  Lamothe  wrote 
a  memorial  stating  they  wished  to  have  their  paroles 
tendered  them  that  they  might  be  enlarged,  and  remain 
no  longer  in  confinement,  although  they  had  before 
been  unanimous  in  rejecting  it.  They  were  accord 
ingly  discharged. f  They  repaired,  of  course,  to  Han 
over  Court  House  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  their 
paroles.  Lieutenant  Schieffelin  being  indispose'd  was 
told  he  could  be  admitted  on  parole ;  and  he  sent  to 
the  authorities  the  following: 

"  'GENTLEMEN  :  Having  been  informed  that  it  has  been 
a  general  practice  to  permit  prisoners  of  war  on  parole  to 
procure  themselves  an  exchange,  or  wherewith  to  defray 
necessaries  of  life  during  their  captivity,  my  present  unhappy 
situation  prompts  me  to  take  this  mode  of  requesting  that  the 
indulgence  be  granted  me  to  proceed  to  New  York  for  the 
same  purpose.  I  shall  sign  the  usual  parole,  and  a  strict 
adherence  shall  be  paid  thereto.  Relying  that  my  request 
will  be  taken  into  consideration,  — 

"  'I  am,  with  respect,  gentlemen,  your  humble  servant, 
ist  Lieut.  Detroit  Volunteers. 

"  'JACOB    SCHIEFFELIN, 

"  "Williamsburg  Prison,  Oct.  11,  1779. 
"  'The  Gov.  and  Council  of  Va.' 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 

f  Schieffelin :  Loose  Notes  —  Magazine  of  American 
History,  vol.  I,  p.  189.  "Captain  Lamothe  and  Mr.  Dejean 
sometime  in  last  October,"  afterward  wrote  Hamilton,  "ac 
cepted  the  parole  formerly  rejected."  (Hamilton  to  Haldi 
mand,  July  6,  1781  —  Germain  MSS.)  But  the  statement  of 
Hamilton  was  taken  by  him  from  his  notes  of  August  1, 
1780;  hence  the  words  "sometime  in  last  October." 


408       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"The  jailor  returned  with  answer  that  they  were  resolved 
to  keep  us  confined  until  we  had  signed  the  paroles  first 
tendered  to  us."* 

Haldimand,  at  Quebec,  was  much  concerned  at 
the  treatment  meted  out  to  Hamilton  and  those  with 
him,  by  the  Virginia  authorities ;  but  he  consoled  him 
self  with  the  belief  that  the  "rebels"  would  not  venture 
to  take  their  livesf  —  a  matter  really  that  had  not  for 
a  moment  been  considered  by  either  Jefferson  or  his 
Council.  It  was  only  Dodge  who  had  wished  it;J 
and,  with  him,  the  "wish  was  father  of  the  thought." 

"The  measure  of  the  Council,"  said  Washington, 
in  writing  Jefferson,  on  the  twenty-third  of  November, 
"in  remanding  Governor  Hamilton  and  his  compan 
ions  back  to  confinement,  on  their  refusing  to  sign  the 
parole  tendered  them,  is  perfectly  agreeable  to  the 
practice  of  the  enemy."  The  particular  part  objected 
to  by  them  —  their  not  being  allowed  to  say  anything 
to  the  prejudice  of  the  United  States  —  the  Com 
mander-in-chief  declared  he  had  always  understood 
entered  into  the  paroles  given  by  American  officers 
to  the  enemy.  "Of  late,"  added  Washington,  "or  ra 
ther  since  Sir  Henry  Clinton  has  had  the  command, 
the  treatment  of  our  prisoners  has  been  more  within 
the  line  of  humanity  and  in  general  very  different  from 
that  which  they  experienced  under  his  predecessors. "§ 

*  Schieffelin :  Loose  Notes  —  Magazine  of  American 
History,  vol.  I,  p.  190. 

f  Haldimand  to  Bolton,  Nov.  11,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 
MSS. 

%  Dodge  to  Boyle,  July  13,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 

§  Writings  of  Washington  (Ford's  ed.),  vol.  VIII,  pp. 
121,  122. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      409 

"Hamilton,  Hay  and  four  others,"  wrote  Jefferson 
to  Washington  on  the  twenty-eighth  of  November, 
"are  still  obstinate.  They  were  continued  therefore, 
in  close  confinement,  though  their  irons  have  never 
been  on  since  your  second  letter  on  the  subject.  I 
wrote  full  information  of  this  matter  to  General  Phil 
lips  also,  from  whom  I  had  received  letters  on  the 
subject.  I  cannot,  in  reason,  believe  that  the  enemy, 
on  receiving  this  information,  either  from  yourself 
or  General  Phillips,  will  venture  to  impose  new  cruel 
ties  on  our  officers  in  captivity  with  them.  Yet  their 
conduct,  hitherto,  has  been  most  successfully  prog 
nosticated  by  reversing  the  conclusions  of  right  reason. 
It  is,  therefore,  my  duty,  as  well  as  it  was  my  prom 
ise  to  the  Virginia  captives,  to  take  measures  for 
discovering  any  change  which  may  be  made  in  their 
situation.  For  this  purpose,  I  must  apply  for  your 
Excellency's  interposition.  I  doubt  not  but  you  have 
an  established  mode  of  knowing,  at  all  times,  through 
your  commissary  of  prisoners,  the  precise  state  of  those 
in  the  power  of  the  enemy.  I  must,  therefore,  pray 
you  to  put  into  motions,  any  such  means  you  have, 
for  obtaining  knowledge  of  the  stiuation  of  the  Vir 
ginia  officers  in  captivity.  If  you  should  think  proper, 
as  I  could  wish,  to  take  upon  yourself  to  retaliate  any 
new  sufferings  which  may  be  imposed  on  them,  it  will 
be  more  likely  to  have  due  weight  and  to  restore  the 
unhappy  on  both  sides  to  that  benevolent  treatment 
for  which  all  should  wish."1* 

On  Christmas  day,  Hamilton's  imprisoned  soldiers 
were  marched  away  to  King  Williams'  Court  House.f 

*  Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  237. 

t  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


410       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"The  weather  at  this  time,"  the  Lieutenant-Gover- 
nor  wrote  subsequently,  "became  so  intensely  cold  that 
we  could  not  rise  from  the  floor,  but  continued  day  and 
night  in  our  blankets.  The  scurvey  began  to  make 
its  appearance  and  our  legs  to  swell.  The  jailor 
then  concluding  we  could  not  survive  the  severity  of 
the  cold,  in  our  present  situation,  took  us  to  an  upper 
room  in  the  jail,  where  prisoners  had  formerly  been 
kept ;  this,  though  it  had  no  window  but  an  open  grate 
was  more  tolerable  than  the  dungeon.  We  could  light 
fire  in  the  chimney,  and  by  sacrificing  part  of  our  blan 
kets  to  stop  the  grated  window,  and  stuff  the  cracks 
in  the  ceiling,  we  made  a  shift  to  endure  in  the  day 
time;  at  night  we  were  remanded  to  our  dungeon."* 

"The  whole  winter,"  wrote  one  of  the  officers,  "did 
we  pass  without  a  stick  of  wood  allowed  us.  Blankets 
were  demanded  for  us  by  the  keepers,  who  got  for 
answer  that  no  blankets  could  be  given  us ;  that  their 
friends  who  were  at  New  York  were  ill-treated  by 
our  people,  some  starved  for  want  of  provisions  and 
blankets.  This  is  the  consolation  they  received  from 
their  cruel  masters.  General  Phillips  was  so  obliging 
as  to  order  a  supply  of  clothing  from  Albermarle. 
When  it  came  to  our  hands,  one  third  only  was  de 
livered  to  us.  The  balance  was  laid  on  the  wagoner: 
poor  restitution !  The  Executive  restricted  us  from 
having  our  meals  as  usual  from  the  tavern  at  our  own 
expense,  but  ordered  us  to  be  put  on  prison  allow 
ance  —  salt  beef  damaged,  and  Indian  meal." 

"In  January,  a  Mr.  William  B.  St.  Clair,  volun 
teer  of  the  Forty-fourth  regiment,  with  ten  troopers  of 
the  Seventeenth  Dragoons,  were  committed  in  close 

*Id. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      41] 

confinement  and  kept  four  days  without  an  ounce  of 
provision  issued  for  them.  Governor  Hamilton  sent 
out  of  the  mess  a  supply,  or  they  would  have  starved. 
The  Executive  power  of  the  rebels  in  Virginia  were 
pleased  to  accuse  Governor  Hamilton  and  others  of 
having  raised  the  Indian  tribes  to  murder  women, 
children  and  defenceless  men  —  most  infamous  false 
hoods,  propagated  by  them  to  inveterate  the  com 
monality  against  the  British,  on  the  frontiers.  They 
say  it  is  cruel  in  them  to  act  with  Indians."* 

Lieutenant  SchieiTelin,  on  the  nineteenth  of  April, 
1780,  at  7  P.  M.,  made  his  escape  from  the  prison  in 
Williamsburg.f  With  him  went  Rocheblave  in  vio 
lation  of  his  parole,  as  Governor  Jefferson  afterward 
claimed. $  The  two  made  their  way  to  Little  York, 
and  embarked  on  board  a  schooner  Schieffelin  engaged, 
and  made  their  way  to  the  eastern  shore,  where  they 
remained  concealed  for  nine  weeks. §  "After  great 
risks  and  difficulties"  both  reached  New  York  in  safety. 
In  thus  escaping,  Rocheblave  declares  he  did  not  break 
his  parole.  || 

*  Schieffelin :  Loose  Notes  —  Magazine  of  American 
History,  vol.  I,  p.  190.  Schieffelin  then  gives  in  full  the  Vir 
ginia  resolutions  of  May  21,  1776,  as  to  the  employment  of 
Indians  in  regular  warfare. 

t  Schieffelin:  Loose  Notes  —  Magazine  of  American 
History,  vol.  I,  p.  190.  Hamilton  gives  the  previous  day  as 
the  date  of  Schieffelin  and  Rocheblave's  escape.  (Letter  to 
Haldimand,  July  6,  1781  —  Germain  MSS.)  But  Schieffelin, 
for  this,  is  the  better  authority. 

%  Jefferson  Works,  vol.  T,  p.  258. 

§  Schieffelin :    Loose  Notes,  loc.  cit. 

||  Mason's  Early  Chicago  and  Illinois,  p.  374.  For  Roche 
blave's  subsequent  career,  see  the  same  work,  pp.  375-381. 


412       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

On  the  first  of  August,  Francis  Maisonville  de 
stroyed  himself.*  "This  poor  man"  ...  are  the 
subsequent  words  of  'Hamilton,  "was  not  .  .  . 
proof  to  the  long  confinement  he  underwent  at  Wil- 
liamsburg.  The  gloominess  of  his  situation  affected 
his  spirits  first;  the  apprehension  of  suffering  an 
ignominious  death  lowered  them  still  more,  till  his 
reason  began  to  be  impaired.  The  surgeon,  a  man  of 
great  humanity,  though  attached  to  the  cause  of  re 
bellion,  wrote  to  the  Governor  and  Council  of  Vir 
ginia,  to  solicit  a  little  enlargement  for  this  poor  man 
as  the  only  means  likely  to  save  him.  What  the 
answer  was  I  know  not;  but  the  unfortunate  creature 
put  an  end  to  his  miseries  and  his  life,  in  spite  of  two 
persons  who  watched  him  and  were  aware  of  his 
situation,  "f 

Hamilton  and  Major  Hay,  on  the  day  of  Maison- 
ville's  death,  were  sent  to  the  jail  at  Chesterfield; 
McBearth  and  Bellefeuille  to  King  William  Court 
House.  Another  parole  was  offered  Hamilton  sub 
sequently  for  his  consideration,  "which  varied  so  lit 
tle,"  he  afterwards  wrote,  "from  the  first  that  we 
chose  to  remain  prisoners  rather  than  accept  it."J 

"While  at  Chesterfield"  is  the  language  of  the 
Lieutenant  Governor,  "our  confinement  was  rendered 
very  tolerable;  and  several  of  the  military  and  others 
who  were  convinced  of  the  injustice  and  illiberality 
of  our  treatment,  showed  by  their  behavior  what  opin 
ion  they  had  of  the  executive  power.  In  this  jail  Ma- 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  20,  1780.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 

f  Same  to  same,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 
JId. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      413 

jor  Hay  and  I  had  a  very  severe  though  short  attack  of 
fever,  which  was  pretty  generally  felt  through  the 
country :  we  were  well  attended.  We  had  liberty 
to  walk  about  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  jail"* 

The  imprisonment  of  the  Lieutenant  'Governor 
called  out  on  part  of  General  Haldimand  a  retaliation, 
but  in  a  mild  form.  He  says :  "From  the  barbarous 
treatment  of  our  prisoners  by  the  rebels  in  many  in 
stances,  particularly  in  that  of  Lieut.  Gov'r  Hamil 
ton  and  the  troops  taken  with  him,  (who  are  still  con 
fined  in  dungeons  upon  scanty  and  unwholesome  pro 
visions),  and  their  obliging  many,  even  in  the  charac 
ter  of  gentlemen,  to  work  for  their  maintenance,  I  have 
given  orders  to  the  commanding  officers  of  the  several 
posts  to  employ  the  rebel  prisoners  in  whatever  wbrk 
they  may  be  most  useful,  if  necessary  under  a  guard, 
allowing  them  a  full  ration  and  pay  equal  to  the  sol 
diers  who  are  employed  as  laborers  —  which  is  to  be 
applied  to  clothe  them.  The  air  and  exercise  will  pre 
serve  their  health,  and  there  cannot  be  a  doubt  of  their 
being  treated  with  humanity."f 

On  the  fifth  of  September,  the  attention  of  the 
Governor  of  Virginia  was  called,  by  Washington,  to 
the  confinement  of  Hamilton,  in  a  letter  of  that  date. 

*  Id.  Farmer  (History  of  Detroit  and  Michigan,  p.  255) 
confounds  the  American  Brigadier  General  Hamilton  with 
Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton,  giving  a  letter  from  Col. 
James  Wood  mentioning,  as  he  (Farmer)  supposes,  the  latter; 
which  would  indicate  that  the  prisoner  was,  on  the  15th  of 
June,  1780,  in  confinement  at  Charlottesville,  Va. ;  but  this  is 
error.  None  of  the  British  taken  by  Clark  and  sent  to  Vir 
ginia  were  held  at  the  place  last  named. 

t  Haldimand  to  Sinclair,  Aug.  10,  1780.— Haldimand 
MSS. 


414       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

The  Commander-in-chief  was  desirous  that  Virginia 
should  consent  to  his  being  exchanged.  "I  was  hon 
ored  yesterday,"  wrote  Governor  Jefferson,  on  the 
twenty-sixth,  in  reply,  "with  your  favor  of  the  fifth 
instant,  on  the  subject  of  prisoners,  and  particularly  of 
Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton.  You  are  not  unap- 
prised  of  the  influence  of  this  officer  with  the  Indians, 
his  activity  and  embittered  zeal  against  us.  You  also, 
perhaps,  know  how  precarious  is  our  tenure  of  the 
Illinois  country,  and  critical  is  the  situation  of  the  new 
counties  on  the  Ohio.  These  circumstances  determ 
ined  us  to  retain  Governor  Hamilton  and  Major  Hay 
within  our  power,  when  we  delivered  up  the  other 
prisoners.  On  a  late  representation  from  the  people 
of  Kentucky,  by  a  person  sent  here  from  that  country, 
and  expressions  of  what  they  had  reason  to  appre 
hend  from  these  two  prisoners  in  the  event  of  their 
liberation,  we  assured  them  they  would  not  be  parted 
with,  though  we  were  giving  up  our  other  prisoners. 
"Lieutenant  Colonel  Dabusson,  aid  to  Baron  de 
Kalb,  lately  came  here  on  his  parole,  with  an  offer 
from  Lord  Rawdon  to  exchange  him  for  Hamilton. 
Colonel  Towles  is  now  here  with  a  like  proposition 
for  himself,  from  General  Phillips,  very  strongly  urged 
by  the  General.  These,  and  other  overtures  do 'not 
lessen  our  opinion  of  the  importance  of  retaining  him ; 
and  they  have  been,  and  will  be,  uniformly  rejected. 
Should  the  settlement,  indeed,  of  a  cartel  become  im 
practicable,  without  the  consent  of  the  states  to  submit 
their  separate  prisoners  to  its  obligation,  we  will  give 
up  these  two  prisoners,  as  we  would  do  anything  rather 
than  be  an  obstacle  to  the  general  good.  But  no  other 
circumstances  would,  I  believe,  extract  them  from  us. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      415 

These  two  gentlemen,  with  a  Lieutenant  Elligood,  are 
the  only  separate  prisoners  we  have  retained,  and  the 
last,  only  on  his  own  request,  and  not  because  we  set 
any  store  by  him.  There  is  indeed  a  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  [British  Commandant]  Rocheblave,  of  Kaskas- 
kia,  who  has  broken  his  parole,  and  gone  to  New 
York,  whom  we  must  shortly  trouble  your  Excellency 
to  demand  for  us,  as  soon  as  we  can  forward  to  you 
the  proper  documents."* 

Colonel  Towles,f  already  mentioned,  arrived  on 
the  twenty-third  of  September,  at  Chesterfield.  He 
had  been  a  long  time  prisoner  to  the  English  on  Long 
Island.  He  had  hopes,  as  we  have  seen,  of  procuring 
an  exchange,  and  came,  under  permission,  to  Vir 
ginia  to  effect  it  if  possible.  He  brought  Hamilton 
letters  from  friends,  which  gave  him  to  understand 
that,  unless  he  accepted  a  parole,  there  was  little  prob 
ability  of  his  (Hamilton's)  exchange.  Being,  there 
fore,  pretty  well  assured  that  the  only  hopes  of  return 
ing  to  his  friends  lay  in  signing  it,  and  having  written 
to  a  "rebel"  officer  (Brigadier  General  Hamilton)  re 
questing  the  continuance  of  his  kindness  to  the  residue 
of  the  prisoners  then  removed  to  Frederick  Town,  the 
Lieutenant  Governor  accepted  and  set  his  name  to 
one: 

"I,  Henry  Hamilton,  Lieutenant  Governor,  and 
Superintendent  of  Detroit,  hereby  acknowledge  myself 
a  prisoner  of  war  to  the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia ; 

*  Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  258.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  Rocheblave  claimed  he  did  not  break  his  parole.  It 
seems  that  no  farther  action  was  taken  by  Jefferson  in  the 
matter. 

f  The  Colonel's  name  is  incorrectly  given  in  Hamilton  to 
Haldimand,  July  6,  1781  (Germain  MSS.)  as  "Fowler/' 


416       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

and  having  permission  from  his  Excellency,  Thomas 
Jefferson,  Governor  of  the  said  Commonwealth,  to  go 
to  New  York,  do  pledge  my  faith  and  most  sacredly 
promise  upon  my  parole  of  honor,  that  I  will  not  do, 
say,  write,  or  cause  to  be  done,  said  or  written,  directly 
or  indirectly,  in  any  respect  whatever,  anything  to  the 
prejudice  of  the  United  States  of  America,  or  of  any 
of  them,  until  I  shall  be  enlarged  from  my  captivity 
by  exchange  or  otherwise  with  the  consent  of  the  said 
Governor  of  Virginia  or  his  successors;  and  that  I 
will  return  when  required  by  the  said  Governor  or  his 
successor,  to  such  place  within  the  said  Commonwealth 
as  he  shall  point  out  and  deliver  myself  up  again  to 
him  or  the  person  acting  for  or  under  him. 

"In  testimony  whereof  I  have  hereunto  set  my 
hand  and  seal  at  Chesterfield,  this  loth  day  of  October, 
1780. 

"HENRY  HAMILTON/' 

"The  within  mentioned  Henry  Hamilton,  having 
signed  a  parole,  of  which  this  is  a  copy,  has  permis 
sion  to  go  to  New  York  and  to  remain  within  such 
parts  of  that  State  as  are  in  possession  of  the  armies 
of  his  Britannic  Majesty,  until  he  shall  be  exchanged 
or  otherwise  liberated  with  the  consent  of  the  Gov 
ernor  of  Virginia  for  the  time  being,  or  until  he  shall 
be  recalled  by  him. 

"Given  under  my  hand  and  seal  of  the  Common 
wealth  of  Virginia,  at  Richmond,  date  within  written. 

"Tn.  JEFFERSON  [L.  S.]" 

Major  Hay  accepted  and  signed  a  like  parole  at 
the  same  date.* 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      417 

On  this  very  day  —  October  tenth  —  Washington 
wrote:  "The  State  of  Virginia,  sensible  of  the  dan 
gerous  influence  which  Governor  Hamilton  holds  over 
the  Indians,  has  absolutely  refused  to  exchange  him 
on  any  terms,  for  the  present  at  least."* 

On  the  twenty-fifth,  Jefferson  wrote  Washington 
that  "on  some  representations  received  by  Colonel 
Towles  that  an  indulgence  to  Governor  Hamilton  and 
his  companions  to  go  to  New  York,  on  parole,  would 
produce  the  happiest  effect  on  the  situation  of  our 
officers  on  Long  Island,  we  have  given  him,  Major 
Hay,  and  some  of  the  same  party  at  Winchester,  leave 
to  go  there  on  parole.  The  two  former  go  by  water, 
the  latter  by  land."f 

Hamilton  and  Hay  had  no  sooner  accepted  a  parole 
than  they  hastened  to  Williamsburg  on  their  way  to 
Hampton  where  they  were  stopped  by  the  Lieutenant 
Governor  of  Virginia,  who,  as  General  Leslie  had  just 
arrived,  thought  it  not  advisable  to  let  them  pass, 
giving  orders  for  their  being  escorted  back  to  Rich 
mond.  This  treatment  Hamilton  resented  and  the 
order  was  rescinded.  As  soon  as  he  had  given  certifi 
cates  recommending  to  General  Leslie  such  of  the 
inhabitants  as  had  shown  an  attachment  to  the  British 
government  (thereby,  virtually,  violating  his  parole) 
or  had  been  kind  to  him  and  his  company  in  their 
distress,  he  with  Hay  proceeded  to  York,  where  some 
turbulent  people  were  minded  to  set  a  guard  over 
them  and  stop  their  progress ;  however,  they  finally 
reached  Hampton.  This  short  journey  cost  the  British 
Lieutenant  Governor  one  thousand  pounds  in  the  de- 

*  Washington's,  Writings  ( Sparks' s  ed.),  vol.  VII,  p.  240. 

t  Id.,  p.  291. 

27 


418       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

preciated  paper  money  then  in  circulation.  At  Hamp 
ton,  the  two  received  civil  treatment.  They  were  fur 
nished  with  a  canoe,  which,  to  their  "inexpressible 
satisfaction,"  put  them  on  board  his  Majesty's  sloop, 
the  Delight,  Captain  Inglis,  who,  by  his  kind  recep 
tion  of  them  "presently  recruited"  their  "lowered 
spirits."* 

The  Lieutenant  Governor  and  Hay  next  went  to 
wait  on  Captain  Gayton  (in  the  Romulus),  the  Com 
modore  of  the  British  squadron.  The  cartel  vessel 
which  was  to  have  conveyed  them  from  Hampton  to 
New  York,  had  been  taken,  and  the  master's  certificate 
not  appearing  genuine,  he,  with  his  vessel,  was  de 
tained.  Having  paid  their  respects  to  General  Leslie, 
who  received  them  with  the  greatest  politeness,  the 
two  returned  to  the  Romulus.  Finally  the  cartel  mas 
ter  was  suffered  to  go  to  Hampton  to  prepare  for  his 
voyage.  The  stores  which  General  Leslie  and  Cap 
tain  Gayton  had  most  liberally  supplied  the  Lieuten 
ant  Governor  and  his  companions  with  "were  plun 
dered  by  the  Americans  on  shore,"  as  the  two  did 
not  care  to  risk  themselves  out  of  a  king's  ship  in  an 
effort  to  save  them.f 

"At  length,"  says  Hamilton,  "we  set  off  from  the 
Romulus  in  our  cartel,  a  little  miserable  sloop,  of 
thirty-five  feet  keel,  for  a  passage,  in  which  we  were 
obliged  to  pay  four  hundred  hard  dollars.  A  violent 
gale  of  wind  obliged  us  to  anchor  off  Smith's  island, 
where  we  were  very  near  perishing.  Our  crew  was 
three  hours  at  work  to  get  the  anchor  out  of  the 
ground.  At  last  we  got  it  home,  leaving  one  flook  be- 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS, 
tld. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       419 

hind ;  and,  to  our  no  small  mortification  were  obliged 
to  put  back  to  Hampton.  Here  we  were  on  the  point 
of  being  detained  by  order  of  General  Nelson,  who 
had  assembled  some  militia,  but  our  skipper  being 
desirous  to  get  us  away,  and  having  got  another  an 
chor,  we  once  more  set  sail  for  New  York." 

"A  very  severe  gale  of  wind,"  continues  the  Lieu 
tenant  Governor,  "took  us  near  the  capes  of  Dela 
ware,  when  our  skipper,  not  having  a  lag-line  on 
board  laid  the  vessel  to;  and  we  had  reason  in  the 
morning  to  admire  our  good  fortune,  for  the  wind  was 
right  on  shore  and  it  was  twelve  at  night  when  he  lay 
to.  Judging  by  the  sun,  we  were  [now]  opposite 
Delaware  Bay  (as  it  proved)  ;  for  we  had  [been] 
driven  seven  leagues  up  the  bay  from  the  time  of  lay 
ing  to." 

"We  arrived  at  New  York,"  are  Hamilton's  fur 
ther  words,  "very  squalid  spectacles,  not  having  had 
any  sleep  for  three  days  and  nights,  our  clothes  ragged, 
shoes  broken,  and  [we]  so  altered  in  face  and  figure 
that  our  acquaintances  could  scarcely  recollect  us."f 

Not  long  after  reaching  New  York,  Hamilton 
wrote  to  his  Commander-in-chief,  giving  him  some 
thing  of  an  idea  of  his  own  and  his  companions'  suf- 

t  Id.  On  the  eleventh  of-November  and  before  Haldimand 
had  learned  of  the  acceptance  by  Hamilton  and  Hay  of  a 
parole,  he  wrote  that  he  was  much  concerned  to  find  how 
Hamilton  and  those  with  him  had  been  treated,  but  he  did 
not  think  the  "rebels"  would  "venture  to  take  their  lives" 
(Haldimand  to  Bolton  —  Haldimand  MSS.)  "The  treatment 
of  Hamilton  by  the  titular  Governor  and  Council  of  Virginia 
has  been  so  barbarous  that  his  Excellency  [General  Haldi 
mand]  will  not  set  at  liberty  any  prisoners  from  that  State 
till  Hamilton  is  liberated."  (Mathews  to  Campbell,  Dec.  28, 
1780— Haldimand  MSS.) 


420       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

ferings  since  they  had  been  made  prisoners,  and  re 
commending  to  his  consideration  the  services  of  his 
officers : 

"It  has  been,"  said  he,  "matter  of  great  concern  to 
me,  that  my  situation  has  put  it  out  of  my  power  to 
know  for  a  certainty  whether  or  not  the  different 
letters  I  have  had  the  honor  of  addressing  to  your 
Excellency,  have  found  their  way  to  Quebec. 

"Neglect  in  point  of  respect  to  your  Excellency, 
or  willful  remissness  of  duty,  have  not  a  place  among 
my  failures.  I  have,  it  is  true,  experienced  the  mis 
fortune  of  having  undertaken  an  enterprise  which  has 
been  attended  with  great  expense  and  fallen  totally 
short  of  success,  yet  I  have  a  confidence  in  your  Ex 
cellency's  candor  and  generosity,  that  the  unexampled 
treachery  of  those  whom  I  had  endeavored  to  win  by 
kind  treatment,  will  appear  to  have  disappointed  my 
measures  and  that  at  least  I  have  made  the  best  use 
in  my  power  of  the  means  I  had  for  distressing  the 
enemy. 

"It  would  be  far  beyond  the  compass  of  a  letter, 
were  I  to  enter  into  a  detail  of  facts,  necessary  for 
clearing  up  this  point,  so  necessary  for  your  Ex 
cellency's  information  and  my  own  vindication.  My 
confinement  since  my  being  a  prisoner  of  war,  has  been 
so  strict,  and  the  watch  over  my  actions  so  exact,  that 
I  have  but  very  imperfect  minutes  whereon  to  build  my 
defence ;  yet,  while  the  candid  few  suspend  their  opin 
ions,  I  shall  quiet  myself  as  to  the  malicious  censures 
of  the  many. 

"After  some  months  confinement  in  a  dungeon, 
the  Governor  of  Virginia  offered  a  parole,  which  we 
all  rejected,  as  it  was  manifestly  constructed  to  the 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       421 

purpose  of  ensnaring  us  and  taking  advantage  of  some 
new  ground  for  crimination. 

"I  have  since  that  time  been  an  entire  year  a  pris 
oner,  the  greater  part  of  the  time  in  a  dungeon,  with 
Major  Hay  and  other  of  the  gentlemen  made  prisoners 
of  war  at  the  same  time.  A  second  and  a  third  parole 
have  been  tendered  to  us  in  the  course  of  that  time,  the 
last  I  accepted  with  some  regret,  and  am  now  on 
parole ;  but  as  yet  unexchanged  and  restricted  to  the 
limits  of  the  lines  dependent  on  this  garrison. 

"However,  by  the  goodness  of  his  Excellency,  Sir 
Henry  Clinton,  and  the  extraordinary  kindness  of  Ma 
jor  General  Phillips,  who  has  given  himself  infinite 
trouble  on  our  accounts,  I  am  in  hope  we  shall  all  be 
finally  exchanged  shortly. 

"Major  Hay's  situation  is  truly  pityable;  upward 
of  two  years  absent  from  his  numerous  family,  of 
whom  he  has  had  no  intelligence,  his  anxiety  and  dis 
tress  are  more  easily  imagined  than  described.  His 
misfortune  will  recommend  him  more  strongly  to  your 
Excellency,  than  can  a  person  who  himself  stands  so 
greatly  in  need  of  your  protection  and  support.  I 
must,  however,  in  justice  to  Major  Hay,  lessen  my 
own  pretensions  to  your  Excellency's  favor,  by  avow 
ing,  that  on  every  occasion,  his  advice  and  assistance 
were  my  chief  resource.  He  voluntarily  embarked, 
on  my  projecting  the  enterprise  against  the  rebels,  and 
his  fortitude  has  supported  him  in  the  most  trying  cir 
cumstances,  ignorant  of  the  fate  of  his  wife  and  seven 
children.  Your  Excellency  will,  I  hope,  pardon  my 
zeal,  for  a  very  deserving  person,  an  officer  of  so 
long  standing,  if  I  presume  to  mention  his  eldest  son 
being  in  his  sixteenth  year. 


422       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"Captain  Lamothe's  health  suffered  much  by  his 
confinement,  and  he  is  now  ill ;  were  it  practical  and  his 
exchange  effected,  he  would  attempt  crossing  the 
Lakes  this  winter  to  receive  your  Excellency's  com 
mands. 

"Lieutenant  Schieffelin,  who  has  set  out  for  Que 
bec,  will,  I  hope,  have  the  honor  of  acquainting  your 
Excellency  with  some  particulars,  which,  in  my  present 
situation,  I  am  not  at  liberty  to  enter  upon.  He 
effected  his  escape  out  of  prison,  last  April ;  has  been, 
on  all  occasions,  devoted  to  the  service,  and  has  done 
his  duty  with  alacrity  and  diligence.  The  unfortunate 
Mr.  Frangois  Maisonville  put  an  end  to  his  miseries 
in  the  prison  with  us  the  first  day  of  August  last.  Mr. 
Bellefeuille  has  behaved  with  great  propriety,  and  is  a 
young  man  of  unexceptionable  character.  He  has 
been  upon  pay  as  an  interpreter  at  one  dollar  per 
diem.  I  shall  take  the  liberty  of  continuing  that  to 
him,  till  I  can  have  your  Excellency's  orders  and  in 
structions,  as  the  young  gentleman  is  exposed  to  ex 
pense  at  this  place,  and  has  no  other  resource  as  yet. 
Should  your  Excellency  judge  proper  to  order  Cap 
tain  Lamothe's  company  to  be  recruited  I  would  beg 
leave  to  recommend  Mr.  Bellefeuille  as  second  lieu 
tenant  of  it. 

"Mr.  McBeath,  who  willingly  accompanied,  me  to 
Vincennes,  and  has  shared  our  fatigues  and  hard 
ships,  gave  up  what  views  of  advantage  in  his  pro 
fession,  he  was  pursuing  at  Detroit  and  being  now 
debarred  the  support  of  his  relations  and  friends  at 
so  great  a  distance  from  home,  I  hope  it  will  appear 
but  reasonable  to  your  Excellency,  that  I  should  con- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       423 

tinue  his  pay  likewise,  till  further  orders,  as  his  situ 
ation  is,  owing  to  his  misfortune,  not  to  his  fault. 

"I  have  the  honor  of  transmitting  by  the  oppor 
tunity  of  a  vessel,  bound  to  Halifax  an  account  of 
bills  drawn  and  cash  disbursed,  directed  to  Captain 
Brehm,  your  Excellency's  secretary ;  the  vouchers 
shall  be  forwarded  as  soon  as  possible,  which  I  hope 
will  be  by  the  hands  of  Major  Hay. 

"Should  my  exchange  take  place  speedily,  I  shall, 
with  the  approbation  of  Sir  Henry  Clinton  sail  for 
England,  and  lose  no  time  to  put  myself  under  your 
Excellency's  orders."* 

"His  Excellency  Sir  Henry  Clinton,  Major  General 
Phillips,  and  Lord  Rawdon,"  are  the  concluding  words 
of  Hamilton,  in  his  Journal  proper,  "were  so  good 
as  to  take  several  steps  toward  procuring  our  exchange, 
which  finally  took  place  on  the  fourth  day  of  March, 
1781.  We  took  our  passage  for  England  the  tenth, 
but  the  packet  not  sailing  till  the  twenty-seventh  of 
May,  our  arrival  in  this  country  was  so  late  as  the 
twenty-first  of  June/'f 

On  the  sixth  day  of  July,  Hamilton,  then  in  Lon 
don,  wrote  to  Haldimand  at  Quebec:  "The  last  let 
ter  I  had  the  honor  of  addressing  to  your  Excellency," 
said  he,  "was  dated  May  the  seventh,  1781,  and  was 
accompanied  with  returns  of  the  prisoners  and  general 
account-  of  the  disbursements  and  of  cash  received 
at  different  times,  duplicates  of  all  which  shall  be  sent 
by  the  first  opportunity.  The  packet  which  brought 
Major  Hay  and  myself  sailed  from  Sandy  Hook  on  the 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  12,  1780.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 

f  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS. 


424       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

twenty-seventh  of  May  and  arrived  in  Falmouth,  on 
the  twenty-first  of  June."* 

It  gave  Haldimand  much  satisfaction  to  hear  of 
Hamilton's  enlargement  and  exchange,  and  he  wrote 
his  congratulations,  trusting  he  would  derive  benefit 
from  his  trip  to  England.  He  informed  him  of  the 
arrival  in  Quebec  of  Captain  Lamothe  and  of  Roche- 
blave  and  -  Belief  euille.  He  generously  assured  the 
Lieutenant  Governor  that  he  would  try  what  could 
be  done  by  Dr.  McBearth.f 

On  the  recall  of  General  Haldimand,  in  1785,  Ham 
ilton  was  appointed  Lieutenant  Governor  of  Quebec. 
He  held  his  position  one  year,  when  he  went  to  Eng 
land,  and  was,  soon  after  his  arrival  there,  made 
Governor  of  Dominica.  He  died  at  Antiqua  in  Septem 
ber,  17964  Hay  was  rewarded  with  the  office  of 
Lieutenant  Governor  of  Detroit.  As  might  be  pre 
sumed,  Dejean  did  not  return  to  Canada  ;§  however, 
the  criminal  proceedings  against  him  and  Hamilton, 
which  had  been  commenced  at  Montreal  were  not 
approved  by  the  home  government.  "The  present 
ments,"  wrote  Germain,  "of  the  grand  jury  at  Mon 
treal  against  Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton  and  Mr. 
Dejean,  are  expressive  of  a  greater  degree  of  jeal 
ousy  than  the  transaction  complained  of  in  the  then 
circumstances  of  the  Province  appear  to  warrant." 

*  Haldimand  MSS.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative, 
Note  CXIII.) 

f  Haldimand  to  Hamilton,  Oct.  23,  1781.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 

%  Morgan's  Celebrated  Canadians,  p.  108. 

§  Dejean  to  Haldimand,  from  Vincennes,  July  28,  1780, 
and  to  De  Peyster  from  the  same  place,  at  same  date.  —  Haldi 
mand  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       425 

"Such" stretches  of  authority/'  continues  Lord  George, 
' 'are,  however,  only  to  be  excused  by  unavoidable  nec 
essity  and  the  justness  and  fitness  of  the  occasion; 
and  you  will  therefore  direct  the  Chief  Justice  to  ex 
amine  the  proofs  produced  of  the  criminal's  guilt, 
and  if  he  shall  be  of  opinion  that  he  merited  the  pun 
ishment  he  met  with,  although  irregularly  inflicted,  it 
is  the  King's  pleasure  that  you  do  order  the  Attorney 
General  to  grant  a  nolle  prosequi  and  stop  all  further 
proceedings  in  the  matter."*  And  they  were  stopped. 

*  Germain   to    Haldimand,   April    16,    1779.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

JUST  as,  on  the  twenty-seventh  of  February, 
Colonel  Clark  in  Vincennes  was  getting  anxious 
because  of  the  non-arrival  of  the  Willing,  the 
bateau  made  its  appearance.  It  was  three  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  when  the  boat  was  made  secure  at  the 
landing.  It  had  been  detained  by  the  strong  current 
of  the  Ohio  and  the  Wabash.  On  board  were  the 
lieutenants  —  Rogers  (the  commander)  and  another 
—  and  forty-eight  men,  two  having  been  added  to 
the  original  number  —  they  were  those  dispatched 
by  Clark  on  the  nineteenth  to  drop  down  the  Wabash 
until  they  met  the  Willing.  The  armament  remained 
intact  —  two  iron  four-pounders  and  four  swivels.* 

Great  was  the  mortification  on  the  vessel  when  all 
learned  the  particulars  of  the  siege  and  surrender  of 
the  fort  that  they  had  been  denied  the  privilege  of 
taking  part  in  the  attack,  f  But  good  humor  soon 
took  the  place  of  disappointment;  and  no  one  was 
more  happy  than  the  Colonel  himself ;  it  was  because 
of  the  arrival,  in  the 'galley,  of  William  Myres,  who 
had  been  sent  by  him  as  an  express  from  Kaskaskia 
and  had  now  returned  from  Williamsburg,  having 
been  taken  up  on  the  Ohio  by  the  commander  of  the 
Willing  and  brought  back  to  the  mouth  of  the. Wa 
bash,  and  taken  thence  to  Vincennes. 

The  package  delivered  by  Myres  contained  the 
official  letter  of  the  Governor  to  Clark  of  January  I, 

*  Clark's  Journal  (entry  of  Feb.  27,  1779).  —  Haldimand 
MSS.  But  the  Colonel  says  there  were  five  swivels  on  the 
Willing.  In  this  he  was  in  error ;  there  were  only  four. 

t  "Bowman's  Journal"  —  entry  of  the  27th  of  February. 
(4261 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       427 

preceding1,  and  one  to  him  on  private  affairs  from  his 
Excellency.  One  also  was  received  by  the  Colonel 
from  Benjamin  Harrison,  speaker  of  the  House  of 
Delegates,  with  the  vote  of  thanks  of  the  House  en 
closed.  There  were,  besides  the  instructions  of  Gov 
ernor  Henry  to  Clark  of  December  12,  copies  of  those 
issued  to  John  Todd  as  Lieutenant  of  Illinois  county, 
and  to  Lieutenant  Colonel  Montgomery,  both  of  the 
date  last  mentioned.  Captain  Bowman,  too,  received 
his  commission  as  Major.*  The  whole  gave  encour 
agement  for  the  future  to  the  Colonel.  His  battalion 
was  to  be  completed  (he  might  expect)  in  a  few 
months,  and  an  entirely  new  regiment  for  service  in 
the  Illinois  was  to  be  raised. 

"What  crowned  the  general  joy,"  afterward  wrote 
Clark  to  the  Virginia  Governor,  "was  the  arrival  of 
William  Myers,  my  express  to  you,  with  your  let 
ters,  which  gave  general  satisfaction.  The  soldiery 
being  made  sensible  of  the  gratitude  of  their  country 
for  their  services,  were  so  much  elated  that  they  would 
have  attempted  the  reduction  of  Detroit,  had  I  ordered 

them."t 

The  American  commander,  on  the  ninth  of  March, 
busied  himself  in  writing  to  the  Virginia  executive 
and  others  on  public  affairs  —  answering  the  letters 
he  had  received.  He  was  particularly  careful  to  give 
Governor  Henry  full  details  in  answer  to  the  letter 

*  "Came  [Feb.  27,  1779]  William  Myers  express  from 
Williamsburgh,  with  very  good  news.  Capt.  Bowman  receives 
a  Major's  commission  inclosed  from  the  Government" 
("Bowman's  Journal'-'  —  State  Department  MSS.) 

t  Clark  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  April  29,  1779  — 
Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222  n.  (See  Appendix  to  our 
narrative,  Note  CXIV.) 


428       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

• 

of  the  latter  of  the  first  day  of  January ;  but  it  never 
reached  its  destination :  nor  did  his  Journal,  which 
he  had  kept  from  the  time  of  leaving-  Kaskaskia  to 
the  final  capture  of  Vincennes.*  "By  William  Myres," 
said  he  to  Henry,  in  reply  to  the  letter  from  the 
Governor  relating  wholly  to  private  matters,  "you 
wrote  me  to  procure  you,  if  possible,  some  horses  and 
mares.  Nothing  could  give  me  greater  pleasure  than 
to  serve  you,  but  I  think,  at  present,  it  is  out  of  my 
power,  as  my  situation  and  circumstances  are  much 
changed.  There  are  no  such  horses  here  as  you  re 
quest  me  to  get ;  and  I  have  so  much  public  business 
to  do,  especially  in  the  Indian  department,  that  I  doubt 
if  I  shall  be  able  to  go  to  the  Illinois  for  some  time." 
Changing  his  subject  to  other  matters  that  Gover 
nor  Henry  had  written  him  about,  the  Colonel  said : 
"I  thank  you  for  your  remembrance  of  my  situation 
respecting  lands  on  the  frontiers.  I  learn  that  [the 
Virginia  Government]  has  reserved  lands  on  the  Cum 
berland  for  the  soldiers.  If  I  should  be  deprived  of  a 
certain  tract  on  that  river  which  I  purchased  three 
years  ago  and  have  been  at  considerable  expense  to 
improve,  I  shall,  in  a  manner,  lose  my  all.  It  is 
known  by  the  name  of  the  'Great  French  Lick,'  on  the 
south  (or  west)  side,  containing  three  thousand  acres. 
If  you  can  do  anything  for  me  in  saving  it,  I  shall 
ever  remember  it  with  gratitude.  There  are  glorious 
situations  and  bodies  of  land  in  this  country  formerly 
purchased.  I  am  in  hopes  of  being  able,  in  a  short 
time,  to  send  you  a  map  of  the  whole."f 

*  See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CXVII ;  also 
Note  CXXV. 

t  Clark  to  Gov.  Henry.  —  Haldimand  MSS.  The  letter 
had  for  its  heading — "Fort  Patrick  Henry,  Vincennes;" 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       429 

The  next  day,  the  Colonel  wrote  to  Benjamin  Har 
rison,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Delegates  of  Vir 
ginia,  acknowledging,  in  fitting  terms,  his  apprecia 
tion  of  the  action  of  the  House,  of  the  twenty-third 
of  the  previous  November,  in  voting  their  thanks  to 
him  and  his  men  for  their  services  in  capturing  the 
Illinois  towns. 

"I  must  confess,  sir,"  he  said,  "that  I  think  my 
country  has  done  me  no  more  honor  than  I  merited; 
but  you  may  be  assured  my  study  shall  be  to  de 
serve  it."  "By  my  public  letters,"  he  added,  "you 
will  be  made  fully  acquainted  with  my  late  success 
ful  expedition  against  Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton, 
who  has  fallen  into  my  hands  with  all  the  principal 
partisans  of  Detroit.  This  stroke  will  nearly  put  an 
end  to  the  Indian  war.  Had  I  but  men  enough  to 
take  advantage  of  the  present  confusion  of  the  Indian 
nations,  I  could  silence  the  whole  in  two  months." 

As  it  was,  he  hoped  to  accomplish  some  effective 
work  with  the  help  of  five  hundred  men  reported  as 
ordered  out  to  reinforce  him.  "If  they  arrive,"  he 
wrote,  "with  what  I  have  in  this  country,  I  am  in 
hopes  it  will  enable  me  to  do  something  clever/'* 

Now  more  than  at  any  previous  time,  did  Clark 
yearn  for  an  opportunity  to  March  against  .Detroit. 
Nay,  he  even  flattered  himself  the  auspicious  moment 
for  such  an  undertaking  was  near  at  hand.  "Never," 
says  he,  "was  a  person  more  mortified  than  I  was,  at 
this  time,  to  see  so  fair  an  opportunity  to  push  a 

and  the  concluding  words  were  —  "My  compliments  to  your 
lady  and  family."  [See  Appendix,  Note  CXV.  (Letter 
No.  1).] 

*  Clark  to  Harrison,  March  10,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 
[See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  (Letter  No.  2),  Note  CXV], 


430       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

victory  —  Detroit  —  lost  for  want  of  a  few  men 
.  Having  at  once  all  the  intelligence  I  could 
wish  for  from  both  sides,  I  was  better  able  to  fix  my 
future  plans  of  operation  against  that  post.  By  his 
Excellency's  letter,  I  might  expect  to  have  a  com 
plete  battalion  in  a  few  months.  The  militia  of  Illi 
nois  I  knew  would  turn  out;  and  I  did  not  doubt 
of  getting  two  or  three  hundred  men  from  Kentucky ; 
which  put  the  matter  out  of  any  uncertainty.  I 
contented  myself  on  that  presumption."* 

"Early  in  the  month  of  March,  I  laid  before  the 
officers,"  wrote  Clark  subsequently,  "my  plans  for  the 
reduction  of  Detroit  and  explained  the  almost  cer 
tainty  of  success  and  the  probability  of  keeping  pos 
session  of  it  until  we  could  receive  succor  from  the 
States.  If  we  awaited  the  arrival  of  the  troops 
mentioned  in  the  dispatches  from  the  Governor  of 
Virginia,  the  enemy  in  the  meantime  might  get 
strengthened,  and  probably  we  might  not  be  so  cap 
able  of  carrying  the  [post]  with  the  expected  rein 
forcement  as  we  should  be  with  our  present  force,  in 
case  we  were  to  make  the  attempt  at  this  time;  and 
in  the  event  of  our  being  disappointed  in  the  promised 
reinforcement,  we  might  not  be  able  to  effect  it  all. 
There  were  various  arguments  made  use  of  on  this 
delicate  point.  Every  person  seemed  anxious  to  im 
prove  the  present  opportunity,  but  prudence  appeared 
to  forbid  the  execution  and  induced  us  to  wait  for  the 
reinforcement." 

'The  arguments,"  continues  Clark,  "which  ap 
peared  to  have  the  greatest  weight,  were,  that,  with 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp. 
75,  76. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC,       431 

such  a  force  we  might  march  boldly  through  the  In 
dian  nations ;  that  it  would  make  a  great  [impres 
sion]  on  them  as  well  as  the  inhabitants  of  Detroit, 
and  have  a  better  effect  than  if  we  were  now  to  slip  off 
and  take  the  place  with  so  small  a  force;  that  the 
British  would  not  wish  to  weaken  Niagara  by  sending 
any  considerable  reinforcement  to  Detroit;  that  it 
was  more  difficult  for  that  post  to  get  succor  from 
Canada  than  it  was  for  us  to  receive  it  from  the 
States;  and  that  the  garrison  at  Detroit  would  not 
be  able  to  get  a  reinforcement  in  time  to  prevent  our 
designs,  as  we  might  with  propriety  expect  ours  in 
a  few  weeks. "* 

Myres,  with  two  men,  on  the  fourteenth,  set  out 
by  land  from  Vincennes  for  the  Virginia  capital,  — 
sent  again  as  an  express  by  Clark. f  He  was  enjoined 
to  hasten  and,  if  necessary,  to  press  whatever  he  might 
need  for  the  service,  even  using  force,  if  necessary ; 
such  were  the  orders  given  him  the  day  before  in 
writing  ;J  but  the  three  returned  the  next  day,  not 
being  able  to  proceed  because  of  the  country  being 
overflowed  with  water.  However,  Myres  soon  started 
again,  this  time  with  three  men,  going  in  a  canoe 
down  the  Wabash  to  its  mouth  and  up  the  Ohio  to  the 
Falls.  Thence,  not  earlier  than  the  fourth  of  April, 

*  Clark's  Memoir — Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
159,  160.  The  argument  that  it  was  more  difficult  for  Detroit 
"to  get  succor  from  Canada"  than  for  Clark  to  receive  it 
"from  the  States"  was  (if  really  made)  a  fallacy,  it  may  be 
premised,  soon  to  be  made  apparent. 

f  "Bowman's  Journal"  of  March  14th. 

|  From  the  Haldimand  MSS.  —  Clark's  Instructions  to 
Myers.  [$e<?  Appendix,  Note  CXV,  (Letter  No.  3.)] 


432       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

he  set  out  for  his  destination  by  land.*  He  had  in 
trusted  to  him  not  only  letters  of  Clark  and  of  some 
of  his  officers  and  men  but  the  Journal  of  the  Colonel 
containing  an  account  of  the  march  from  Kaskaskia 
to  Vincennes  and  of  the  capture  of  Hamilton  and  his 
garrison. f 

On  the  fifteenth  an  express  arrived  at  Vincennes 
from  Kaskaskia  with  the  information  that  forty-one 
men  from  New  Orleans  had  reached  there.  This  was 
Captain  James  Willing's  Company ;  —  the  Captain, 
after  resigning  his  command  to  Robert  George,  had 
started  with  a  companion  for  Philadelphia.^  Captain 
George,  on  his  arrival,  took  charge  of  the  garrison 
in  Fort  Clark.§ 

"On  my  return  from  New  Orleans,"  afterward 
wrote  George,  "I  had  positive  written  orders  to  join 
Colonel  Clark  in  the  Illinois  or  the  commanding  officer 
there,  who  was  to  give  me  order  for  my  future  des 
tination.  These  orders  [to  join  Clark]  I  received  from 
Mr.  Pollock,  agent  for  the  United  States,  and  also 
from  Captain  Willing." || 

It  was  now  a  question  with  the  American  com 
mander  what  he  should  do  with  the  residue  of  his 

*  "Bowman's  Journal"  —  Department  of  State  MSS. 
(See  Appendix,  Note  CXVI.) 

t  Appendix,  Note  CXVII. 

J  "Bowman's  Journal."  The  number  of  men  under  com 
mand  of  Capt.  George  is  given  in  De  Peyster  to  Haldimand, 
June  27,  1779  —  Haldimand  MSS. 

§  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p. 
83.  The  Colonel  declares  that  George's  company. was  a  con 
siderable  reinforcement  to  the  little  party  in.  the  Kaskaskia 
fort. 

||  George  to  Colonel  Daniel  Brodhead  at  Fort  Pitt,  Sept. 
25,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       433 


prisoners,  having,  he  says,  more  than  he  knew  what 
to  do  with.*  Besides,  he  was  not  ignorant  of  the  fact 
of  the  great  desire  of  those  who  had  families  in  De 
troit  to  return  home;  and,  not  doubting  that  his 
good  treatment  of  these  volunteers  —  all  inhabitants 
of  Detroit  —  would  promote  his  interests  there,  he, 
upon  their  application,f  discharged  the  greater  part 
of  them  (but  none  who  had  been  with  Indian  parties 
against  the  American  settlements)  on  their  taking 
"the  oath  of  neutrality;"  that  is  to  say,  they  were 
paroled.  "They  went  off,"  says  the  Colonel,  "huzzaing 
for  the  Congress  and  declaring  though  they  could  not 
fight  against  the  Americans  they  would  for  them" 
(a  few,  it  seems,  remaining  in  Vincennes,  joining 
Clark's  force).  This  was  on  the  sixteenth.  There 
was  sent  with  them  a  copy  of  the  alliance  between 
France  and  the  United  States.  Clark  was  now  much 
relieved ;  for,  after  so  many  of  his  volunteers  had 
returned  to  their  homes,  his  prisoners  numbered  almost 
as  many  as  his  own  men. 

With  those  set  at  liberty,  Clark  sent  a  letter  to 
Captain  Lernoult  at  Detroit.  It  ended  with  a  sarcasm 
doubtless  irritating  to  that  officer : 

"I  learn  by  your  letter  to  Governor  Hamilton  that 
you  were  very  busy  making  new  works.  I  am  glad  to 
hear  it,  as  it  will  save  the  Americans  some  expense 
in  building."  The  Colonel  then  added  these  words: 

*  Clark  to  Gov.  Henry,  April  29,  1779  (Jefferson's  Works, 
vol.  I,  p.  222  n.) 

f  Capt.  Joseph  Bowman  to  Capt.  R.  B.  Lernoult,  March 
20,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narra 
tive,  Note  CXVIII.) 

'    28 


434       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

''The  officers  of  Fort  Patrick  Henry  solicit  Cap 
tain  Lernotilt  to  present  their  compliments  to  the  of 
ficers  of  his  garrison."* 

From  the  moment  of  the  arrival  of  Clark  at  Vin- 
cennes,  the  Piankeshaws  and  Kickapoos  of  the  village 
had  given  him  no  concern.  It  is  true  they  had  met 
Hamilton  in  council  and  declared  themselves  thence 
forth  his  followers,  but  the  British  commander  very 
well  understood  it  was  more  through  fear  than  kindly 
regard.  The  Colonel  declares  that,  having  matters  a 
little  settled  at  Vincennes,  he  turned  his  attention  to 
the  Indians  of  the  Wabash,  calling  together  the  Pian 
keshaws,  Kickapoos  and  others,  who,  as  he  had  been 
informed  (though  erroneously),  had  refused  to  listen 
to  the  Lieutenant  Governor.  "I  knew,"  says  Clark, 
"that  Mr.  Hamilton  had  endeavored  to  make  them 
[the  Indians]  believe  that  we  intended  at  last  to  take 
all  their  lands  from  them,  and  that,  in  case  of  suc 
cess,  we  would  show  no  greater  mercy  for  those  who 
did  not  join  him  than  those  that  did.  I  endeavored 
to  make  myself  acquainted  with  the  arguments  he 
used." 

"I  made  a  very  long  speech  to  them  in  the  Indian 
manner,"  continues  the  Colonel ;  "extolled  them  to 
the  skies  for  their  manly  behavior  and  fidelity;  told 
them  that  we  were  so  far  from  having  any  design 
on  their  lands  that  I  looked  upon  it  that  we  were 
then  on  their  land  where  the  fort  stood,  that  we 
claimed  no  land  in  their  country,  that  the  first  man 
that  offered  to  take  their  lands  by  violence  must  strike 
the  tomahawk  in  my  head,  that  it  was  only  necessary 

*  See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CXIX. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       435 

that  I  should  be  in  their  country  during  the  war  and 
keep  a  fort  in  it  to  drive  off  the  English,  who  had  a 
design  against  all  people ;  after  that,  I  might  go  to 
some  place  where  I  could  get  land  to  support  me." 

The  treaty  was  concluded  to  the  satisfaction  of 
both  parties.  The  Indians,  the  American  commander 
declares,  were  much  pleased  at  what  they  heard  and 
they  begged  him  to  favor  them  the  next  day  with  his 
company  at  a  council  of  theirs ;  so,  on  the  sixteenth 
of  March,  he  attended  their  meeting,  —  the  great  part 
of  the  time  being  spent  in  ceremony.  Finally,  they 
told  the  Colonel  they  had  been  meditating  on  what  he 
had  said  to  them  the  day  before;  that  all  the  nations 
of  the  Wabash  would  be  rejoiced  to  have  him  always 
in  their  country  as  their  great  father  and  protector; 
and  as  he  had  said  he  would  claim  no  land  of  theirs 
they  were  determined  that  they  would  not  lose  him 
on  that  account,  and  had  resolved  to  give  him  a  piece, 
but  larger  than  they  had  given  to  all  the  French  at 
Vincennes. 

Clark  was  well  pleased  at  the  Indians'  offer,  as  it 
gave  him  an  opportunity  to  refuse  the  acceptance  of  it, 
—  the  farther  to  convince  them  that  he  did  not  want 
their  land;  but  they  appeared  dejected  at  his  refusal; 
whereupon,  he  waived  any  further  talk  on  that  or 
other  subjects,  recommending  a  "frolic,"  as  he  terms 
it,  that  night,  "as  the  sky  was  clearer  than  ever."  He 
then  presented  them  with  a  quantity  of  tafia  and  pro 
visions  to  make  merry  on  and  left  them.* 

After  the  treaty  with  the  Indians  of  the  Wabash,f 
the  American  commander  was  gratified  to  see  coming 

*  See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CXX. 
f  The  Miami  Indians  of  Eel  river,  it  seems,  did  not  take 
kindly  to  the  American  cause  (History  of  the  Girtys,  p.  107), 


436       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

into  Vincennes  and  craving  audience,  some  Chippewas 
and  others  that  had  been  with  Hamilton.  The  Colonel 
soon  granted  them  a  hearing.  They  begged  him  to 
excuse  their  blindness  and  take  them  into  favor.  After 
the  warmest  solicitations  for  mercy,  Clark  told  them 
that  the  Big  Knives  were  merciful,  which  proved  them 
to  be  warriors ;  that  he  would  send  belts  and  a  speech 
to  all  the  nations  ;  and  that  they  [the  savages  present], 
after  hearing  of  it,  might  do  as  they  pleased;  but 
[they]  must  blame  themselves  for  future  misfortunes. 
He  then  sent  them  oft". 

It  was  the  opinion  of  Clark  that  nothing  destroys 
the  interest  of  Indians  in  one  so  soon  as  wavering 
sentiments  or  speeches  that  show  the  least  fear.  He, 
consequently,  had  observed,  as  he  declares,  one  steady 
line  of  conduct  among  them.  Hamilton  who  was 
almost  deified  by  them  being  captured  by  the  Colonel, 
it  was  a  sufficient  confirmation  to  the  Indians  of  every 
thing  the  latter  had  formerly  said  to  them  and  gave 
great  weight,  in  his  view,  to  the  speeches  he  intended 
to  send  them.  Expecting  that  he  would  shortly  be 
able  to  fulfill  his  threats  with  a  body  of  troops  suf 
ficient  to  penetrate  into  any  part  of  their  country  and 
by  reducing  Detroit  bring  them  to  his  feet,  he  sent 
the  following  speech  to  the  different  tribes  near  the 
lakes,  which  were  at  war  with  the  Americans : 

"To  the  Warriors  of  the  Different  Nations,  Men  and 
Warriors :  —  It  is  a  long  time  since  the  Big  Knives  sent 
belts  of  peace  among  you  soliciting  of  you  not  to  listen  to 
the  bad  talks  and  deceit  of  the  English,  as  it  would,  at  some 
future  day  tend  to  the  destruction  of  your  nations.  You 
would  not  listen  but  joined  the  English  against  the  Big 

doubtless  because  the  residue  of  that  nation  at  the  head  of  the 
Maumee  still  adhered  to  the  British. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       437 

Knives  and  spilt  much  blood  of  women  and  children.  The 
Big  Knives  then  resolved  to  show  no  mercy  to  any  people 
that  hereafter  would  refuse  the  belt  of  peace  which  should 
be  offered,  at  the  same  time  one  of  war.  You  remember  last 
summer  a  great  many  people  took  me  by  the  hand,  but  a  few 
kept  back  their  hearts.  I  also  sent  belts  of  peace  and  war 
among  the  nations  to  take  their  choice ;  some  took  the  peace- 
belt  others  still  listened  to  their  great  father  (as  they  call 
him)  at  Detroit,  and  joined  him  to  come  to  war  against  me. 
The  Big  Knives  are  warriors  and  look  on  the  English  as  old 
women  and  all  those  that  join  them,  and  are  ashamed  when 
they  fight  them  because  they  are  no  men. 

"I  now  send  two  belts  to  all  the  nations,  —  one  for 
peace  and  the  other  for  war.  The  one  that  is  for  war  has 
your  great  English  father's  scalp  tied  to  it  and  [is]  made 
red  with  his  blood.  All  you  that  call  yourselves  his  children 
make  your  hatchets  sharp  and  come  out  and  revenge  his 
blood  on  the  Big  Knives ;  fight  like  men,  that  the  Big  Knives 
may  not  be  ashamed  when  they  fight  you,  that  our  old  women 
may  not  tell  us  that  we  only  fought  squaws.  If  any  of  you 
are  for  taking  the  belt  of  peace,  send  the  bloody  belt  back 
to  me  that  I  may  know  who  to  take  by  the  hand  as  brothers ; 
for,  you  may  be  assured  that  no  peace  for  the  future  will  be 
granted  to  those  that  do  not  lay  down  their  arms  immediately. 
It  is  as  you  will,  —  I  do  not  care  whether  you  are  for  peace 
•or  war,  as  I  glory  in  war  and  want  enemies  to  fight  us  as 
the  English  cannot  fight  us  any  longer,  and  are  become  like 
young  children  begging  the  Big  Knives  for  mercy  and  a  little 
bread  to  eat.  This  is  the  last  speech  you  may  ever  expect 
from  the  Big  Knives;  the  next  thing  will  be  the  tomahawk. 
And  you  may  expect  in  four  moons  to  see  your  women  and 
children  given  to  the  dogs  to  be  eat,  while  those  nations  that 
have  kept  their  words  with  me  will  flourish  and  grow  like 
the  willow  trees  on  the  river-banks  under  the  care  and  nour 
ishment  of  their  father,  the  Big  Knives." 

Now  that  Clark  had  fixed  all  matters  at  Vincennes 
"so  as  to  promise  future  advantage,"  having  sent  let 
ters  to  Colonel  John  Bowman,  the  County  Lieutenant 
of  Kentucky  County,  solociting  him  to  make  some 


438       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

preparatory  movements  towards  joining  him  when 
called  on,  with  all  the  force  he  could  raise,  he  made 
preparations  to  return  to  Kaskaskia.* 

Lieutenant  Brashier  was  to  be  left  in  command 
of  Fort  Patrick  Henry,  and  with  him  forty  picked 
men,  sergeants  and  corporals  included.  Under  him 
were  Lieutenants  Bayley  and  Chapline.  The  whole 
were  to  remain  until  relieved  from  Kaskaskia.  Cap 
tain  Helm  was  given  command  of  Vincennes,  in  civil 
matters.  He  was  also  made  Superintendent  of  Indian 
affairs.  Moses  Henry  was  appointed  Indian  Agent 
and  Patrick  Kennedy  quartermaster.f 

On  the  nineteenth  of  March,  orders  were  issued 
by  Clark  to  have  six  boats  put  in  readiness  to  start 
for  Kaskaskia.  Two  of  these  were  the  Willing  and 
Running  Fly  —  the  latter  a  small  craft.  Captain  Mc- 
Carty  was  given  command  of  the  Willing,  "now 
made  perfectly  complete ;"  while  a  sergeant  and  six 
men  were  to  manage  the  Running  Fly.  Captain 
Worthington  and  Lieutenant  Keller,  and  two  ensigns 
were  to  have  charge,  each  of  them,  of  a  boat.J  With 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.- 
82.  "Bowman's  Journal"  —  entry  of  March  19,  1779.  (See 
Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CXXI.) 

t  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
163,  164.  "Bowman's  Journal,"  of  the  date  March  20,  1779. 

£  In  "Bowman's  Journal"  —  Department  of  State  MSS. 
—  the  names  of  the  two  ensigns  are  given  as  Montgomery 
and  Lawvin ;  in  the  printed  Journal,  as  Montgomery  and 
Lorraine,  and  Lieutenant  Chapline  appears  erroneously  as 
"Chapman"  (see  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  110). 
In  the  place  last  cited,  as  well  as  in  the  Department  of  State 
MSS.,  Lieutenant  Keller  is  erroneously  spoken  of  as  "Captain 
Keller." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       439 

them  were  to  be  sent  all  the  prisoners  yet  remaining 
in  Vincennes,  as  well  as  all  the  goods  —  "the  spoils  of 
the  war"  -  —  not  previously  disposed  of,  including  such 
as  had  been  set  aside  for  a  specific  purpose.*  The 
brass  field-piece  captured  from  Hamilton  was  also  to 
be  taken  along.f 

On  the  twentieth,  at  4  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
Clark  started  with  all  his  force  (save  those  left  to 
guard  Fort  Patrick  Henry  and  the  few  who  had  been 
charged  with  other  duties)  for  Kaskaskia.  Out  of 
abundant  caution  eighty  of  his  men  whom  he  styles 
his  "guard"  were  armed  and  equipped  for  instant  and 
effective  service ;  for,  besides  the  danger  which  might 
impend  from  an  unknown  and  concealed  enemy,  there 
were  his  prisoners  to  be  watched. f 

Says  one  of  his  men  who  did  not  go  along  and 
who  noted  the  incident  at  the  moment  of  starting: 
"The  boats,  after  much  rejoicing,  are  now  out  of 
sight.  God  send  them  a  good  and  safe  passage  !"§ 
The  trip  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles  was  made 
without  accident ;  and  the  soldiers,  after  a  campaign 
of  about  seven  weeks'  duration  were  happy  in  getting 

*  That  goods  were  taken  along  of  those  secured  from  the 
enemy,  is  made  certain  by  the  statement  to  be  found  in  the 
History  of  the  Girtys,  p.  106.  Other  evidence  will  hereafter 
be  adduced. 

f  History  of  the  Girtys,  loc.  cit. 

t  Clark  in  his  Memoir  erroneously  gives  seventy  as  the 
number  of  his  "guard"  and  speaks  of  them  as  though  there 
were  none  beside  them  taken  along. 

§  "Bowman's  Journal"  in  Department  of  State  MSS., 
where  the  wording  is  different  from  what  is  printed  in  Clark's 
Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  110.  (See  Appendix  to  our  nar 
rative,  Note  CXXII.) 


440       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

back  to  the  Illinois.*  The  American  commander 
found,  on  his  return,  that  the  presence  of  Captain 
George  and  his  company,  because  of  the  protection  they 
gave,  afforded  much  satisfaction  to  the  inhabitants  of 
Kaskaskia.f  And  these  new  friends  received  with 
great  joy  their  victorius  countrymen. 

"The  season  of  the  year,"  wrote  one  of  Clark's 
men  soon  after,  "when  the  expedition  against  Vin- 
cennes  was  undertaken,  and  the  good  conduct  of  those 
engaged  in  it,  show  what  can  be  done  by  an  army, 
let  the  difficulties  be  what  they  may.  Perseverance 
and  steadfastness  will  surmount  all  obstacles,  as  is 
shown  in  the  acts  of  our  brave  commander,  and  all 
his  officers,  not  forgetting  his  soldiers.  Although 
a  handful  in  comparison  to  other  armies,  they  have 
done  themselves  and  the  cause  they  were  fighting  for, 
credit  and  honor ;  and  they  deserve  a  place  in  history 
that  their  posterity  may  know  the  difficulties  their 
forefathers  went  through  for  their  liberty  and  free 
dom ;  particularly  the  back-settlers  of  Virginia  may 
bless  the  day  they  sent  out  such  a  commander,  such 
officers  and  men  —  to  root  out  the  vipers  that  were 
every  day  ravaging  on  their  women  and  children ; 
which  I  hope  will  soon  be  at  an  end,  as  the  leaders 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  164. 
(See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CXXIII.) 

t  "During  my  absence,"  wrote  the  Colonel,  "Captain  Robert 
George,  who  now  commands  the  company  formerly  com 
manded  by  Captain  Willing,  had  returned  from  New  Orleans, 
which  greatly  added  to  our  strength.  It  gave  great  satisfac 
tion  to  the  inhabitants,  when  acquainted  with  the  protection 
which  was  given  them."  (Clark  to  Jefferson,  April  29,  1779  — 
Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222  n.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      441 


of  these  murderers  will  soon  be  disposed  of  by  Con- 


gress."* 


*  From  "Bowman's  Journal"  as  printed  (see  Clark's  Cam 
paign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  111.)  I  have  not  followed  the  words 
of  the  writer  closely,  but  have  endeavored  to  give  the  sense 
intended  to  be  conveyed  by  him.  (Consult,  in  this  connection, 
Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CXXII.) 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE    Delaware    Indians    inhabiting    the    White 
river  country  had,  most  of*  them,  before  the 
capture  of  Hamilton  and  his  force,  joined  the 
British ;  but  now,  that  matters  .had  taken  a  decided 
change,  a  few  concluded  it  best  to  make  peace  with 
the  conquerors,  or  at  least  to  be  on  friendly  terms  with 
them. 

A  party  of  these  savages  visited  Kaskaskia ;  but, 
"getting  drunk  with  some  loose  young  fellows"  of 
the  town,  they  made  threats,  forgetting  their  peace 
able  resolutions.  Their  menaces  were  met  by  like 
demonstrations  on  the  other  side.  Thereupon  one,  of 
the  Indians  flashed  his  gun  at  a  woman.  This  aroused 
the  animosity  of  the  Creoles  and  two  of  the  Delawares 
were  shot  down  and  the  rest  pursued  by  the  townsmen 
some  distance  down  the  Kaskaskia,  with  the  result  of 
another  being  killed  and  some  wounded.  Clark,  it 
seems,  while  returning  from  Vincennes,  on  his  way  up 
that  river  had  observed  some  fresh  Indian  camps, 
which  it  was  plain  had  been  left  in  great  haste.  Upon 
his  arrival  at  Kaskaskia,  the  mystery  was  soon  cleared 
up  when  the  circumstances  were  explained  to  him  of 
the  pursuit  and  shooting  of  the  fleeing  Delawares. 
Some  days  afterwards,  an  express  arrived  from 
Vincennes,  bringing  the-  intelligence  from  Captain 
Helm,  that  a  party  of  traders  who  were  going  by  land 
to  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  had  been  killed  and  their 
goods  taken  by  White  river  Delawares,  and  that  it 
appeared  their  designs  were  altogether  hostile,  as  he 
had  learned  (but  this  was  an  erroneous  report)  they 

(442) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       442 

had  received  a  belt  from  the  great  council  of  their 
nation  —  that  of  their  people  residing  on  the  Mus- 
kingum,  to  take  up  the  hatchet.  Clark  quickly  decided 
it  was  cause  for  war  with  these  savages  (he  was  really 
glad  to  find  some  cause  for  attacking  them,  as  he  had 
all  along  considered  them  enemies)  ;  he  therefore,  sent 
back  the  express  to  Vincennes  with  orders  to  Captain 
Helm  at  once  to  attack  them.  Clark  declares  that 
upon  the  first  arrival  of  the  Americans  in  the  country 
they  had  ''hatched  up  a  kind  of  peace"  with  them ;  but 
he  always  knew  they  were  for  open  war,  yet  he  never 
could  get  a  proper  excuse  before  for  driving  them 
from  the  country,  which  he  knew  they  would  be  loth 
to  leave,  and  that  the  other  Indians  wished  them  away, 
as  "they  were  great  hunters  and  killed  up  their  game." 

"I  was  sorry  for  the  loss  of  our  men,"  subsequently 
wrote  Clark,  "otherwise  pleased  at  what  had  happened, 
as  it  would  give  me  an  opportunity  of  showing  the 
other  Indians  the  horrid  fate  of  those  who  would  dare 
to  make  war  on  the  Big  Knife ;  and,  to  excel  them  in 
barbarity  I  knew  was  and  is  the  only  way  to  make 
war  and  gain  a  name  among  the  Indians.  I  immedi 
ately  sent  orders  to  Vincennes  to  make  war  on  the 
Delawares,  to  use  every  means  in  their  [Captain  Helm 
and  his  men's]  power  to  destroy  them,  to  show  no 
kind  of  mercy  to  the  men,  but  to  spare  the  women  and 
children.  This  order  was  executed  without  delay, 
their  camps  were  attacked  in  every  quarter  where  they 
could  be  found ;  many  fell  and  others  were  brought  to 
Vincennes  and  put  to  death,  [and]  the  women  and 
children  secured. 

"They  immediately  applied  for  reconciliation,  but 
were  informed  that  I  had  ordered  the  war 


444       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

and  that  they  [the  Americans]  dare  not  lay  down  the 
tomahawk  without  permission  from  me ;  but  that  if 
the  Indians  were  agreed,  no  more  blood  should  be 
spilt  until  an  express  should  go  to  Kaskaskia,  which 
was  immediately  sent.  I  refused  to  make  peace  with 
the  Delawares,  and  let  them  know  that  we  never 
trusted  those  who  had  once  violated  their  faith,  but  if 
they  had  a  mind  to  be  quiet,  they  might,  and  if  they 
could  get  any  of  their  neighboring  Indians  to  be 
security  for  their  good  behavior,  I  would  let  them 
alone;  but  that  I  cared  very  little  about  it,  privately 
directing  Captain  Helm  how  to  manage. 

"A  council  was  called  of  all  the  Indians  in  the 
neighborhood ;  my  answer  was  made  public ;  the  Pian- 
keshaws  took  on  themselves  to  answer  for  the  future 
good  conduct  of  the  Delawares ;  and  the  Tobacco's 
son,  in  a  long  speech,  informed  them  of  the  baseness  of 
their  conduct,  and  how  richly  they  had  deserved  the 
severe  blow  they  had  met  with ;  that  he  had  given  them 
permission  to  settle  that  country  but  not  to  kill  his 
friends ;  that  they  now  saw  the  Big  Knife  had  refused 
to  make  peace  with  them,  but  that  he  (the  Tobacco's 
son)  had  become  security  for  their  good  conduct,  and 
that  they  might  go  and  mind  their  hunting,  and  that 
if  they  ever  did  any  more  mischief  —  pointing  to  the 
sacred  bow  he  held  in  his  hand  —  ...  he  himself 
would  for  the  future  chastise  them.  Thus  ended  the 
war  between  us  and  the  Delawares  in  this  quarter, 
much  to  our  advantage,  as  the  nations  about  said  that 
we  were  as  brave  as  the  Indians,  and  not  afraid  to 
put  an  enemy  to  death."* 

*  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
1G4,  165.  But  Clark  in  writing  to  Mason  (Clark's  Campaign 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       445 

Upon  Clark's  arrival  at  Kaskaskia  from  his  success 
ful  campaign  against  Hamilton,  things  in  general 
seemed  to  be  tranquil  (excepting  only  the  hostility  of 
the  Delawares,  just  mentioned)  ;  so  he  resolved  to  spend 
a  few  weeks  in  diversions,  which  he  had  not  done  since 
his  arrival  in  the  Illinois ;  but  his  resolution  came  to 
naught,  as  he  found  it  impossible  to  throw  off  the  care 
and  anxiety  which  continually  beset  him.  Then  there 
was  the  reduction  of  Detroit  which  he  had  continually 
in  view,  not  as  a  motive  for  applause  but  from  a  desire 
to  establish  a  profound  peace  on  the  frontiers.  He 
was,  as  he  fondly  imagined  (but  in  this,  he  was  un 
doubtedly  mistaken)  so  well  acquainted  with  its  situa 
tion,  strength  and  influence  that,  in  case  he  was  not 
disappointed  in  the  number  of  troops  he  expected,  he 
accounted  the  place  his  own.*  He  would  rendezvous 
at  Vincennes,  marching  them  up  the  Wabash  — ,  such 
were  the  plans  he  revolved  in  his  mind. 

"Receiving  letters  from  Colonel  Bowman  at  Ken 
tucky,"  says  the  commandant,  "informing  me  that  I 
might  expect  him  to  reinforce  me  with  three  hundred 
men  whenever  I  should  call  on  him  if  it  lay  in  his 
power,  at  the  same  time  receiving  intelligence  from 
Colonel  Montgomery, —  I  now  thought  my  success 
reduced  to  a  certainty.  I  immediately  set  about  mak 
ing  provision  for  the  expedition,  to  be  ready  against 

in  the  Illinois,  p.  83)  was,  for  some  reason,  careful  not  to 
enter  upon  a  description  of  the  bloody  work  performed  by 
Capt.  Helm  as  a  retaliation.  All  he  says  is :  "The  war  was 
carried  on  pretty  equally  on  both  sides  for  several  months; 
but  they  [the  Delawares],  at  last  thought  proper  to  solicit 
a  peace." 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
loc.  cit. 


446       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

the  arrival  of  troops,  to  give  the  enemy  as  little  time  as 
possible  to  complete  the  new  fortifications  I  knew  they 
were  then  about."*  Clark  sent  an  express  to  Colonel 
Bowman  desiring  him  to  join  him  at  Vincennes  on  the 
twentieth  of  June  with  all  the  force  he  could  possibly 
raise,  agreeable  to  his  letters  to  him.  He  also  sent 
out  one  of  his  captains  among  the  different  nations 
of  Indians  to  receive  their  congratulations  on  his  late 
success,  and  the  submission  of  those  that  had  resolved 
to  desert  the  English,  and  to  get  fresh  intelligence 
from  Detroit. 

The  civil  department  in  the  Illinois  had  hitherto 
robbed  the  Commandant  of  much  of  his  time  he 
thought  ought  to  have  been  given  to  military  matters ; 
but  he  was  now  likely  to  be  soon  relieved  by  John  Todd, 
who  had  been  appointed  (as  Clark  gladly  learned) 
lieutenant  of  the  county  of  Illinois,  with  civil  jurisdic 
tion  of  much  importance  —  more,  in  fact,  than  had  ever 
before  been  delegated  to  an  officer  of  the  kind  in  Vir 
ginia,  f  I  "was  anxious,"  wrote  Clark,  "for  his  arri 
val  and  happy  in  his  appointment,  as  the  greatest  in 
timacy  and  friendship  existed  between  us." 

Clark  was  now  in  high  spirits.  On  the  twenty- 
ninth  of  April,  he  wrote  the  Governor  of  Virginia  at 
considerable  length,  not  only  giving  him  many  details, 
but  again  answering  the  letters  received  by  him  at  Vin- 

*  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp. 
83,  84.  The  intelligence  from  Montgomery  was  to  the  effect 
that  he  (Montgomery)  would  be  able  to  bring  a  considerable 
force  of  recruits  by  way  of  the  Tennessee  river,  and  that  he 
had  been  commissioned  a  lieutenant-colonel. 

f  As  to  the  fiction  that  Todd  was  one  of  Clark's  soldiers 
on  his  expedition  to  the  Illinois,  see  Appendix  to  our  narrative, 
Note  CXXIV. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       447 

cennes  at  the  hands  of  William  Myres,  the  express 
sent  from  Williamsburg ; —  why  this  was  done  will 
now  appear.  "A  few  days  ago,"  said  Clark,  "I  re 
ceived  certain  intelligence  of  William  Myres,  my  ex 
press  to  you,  being  killed  near  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio, 
—  news  truly  disagreeable  to  me,  as  I  fear  many  of 
my  letters  will  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy  at 
Detroit,  although  some  of  them,  as  I  learn  were  found 
in  the  woods  torn  in  pieces."*  What  the  Colonel 
feared,  actually  happened;  his  journal,  reciting  the 
particulars  of  his  march  to  Vincennes,  and  the  surrend 
ering  to  him  of  Fort  Sackville  with  its  garrison  and 
stores,  was  captured,  together  with  all  the  letters  in 
possessions  of  the  express,  several  of  which  afterward 
found  their  way  to  Detroit.f  It  is  evident,  therefore, 
there  were  white  men  with  the  Indians  on  that  occa 
sion. 

The  Colonel  also  wrote  that  he  was  proud  to  hear 
that  Congress  intended  putting  its  forces  on  the  fron 
tiers  under  the  direction  of  the  Governor  of  Virginia. 
"A  small  army,"  said  he,  "from  Pittsburgh,  conducted 
with  spirit,  may  easily  take  Detroit  and  put  an  end  to 
the  Indian  war.  Those  Indians,  who  are  active  against 
us  are  the  Six  Nations  [Mingoes],  part  of  the  Shaw- 
anese,  the  Miamies,  and  about  half  of  the  Chippewas, 
Ottawas,  lowas,  and  Pottawattamies,  bordering  on  the 
lakes.  Those  nations  who  have  treated  with  me,  have 
since  behaved  very  well ;  they  are  the  Piankeshaws, 
Kikapoos,  Weas,  of  the  Wabash  river ;  the  Kaskaskias, 
Peorians,  Mitchigamies,  Sacs  and  Foxes,  lowas,  Illi- 

*  Clark  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  April  29,  1779  — 
Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222  n. 

t  See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CXXV ;  also  Note 
CXXVII. 


448       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

nois,  and  Pottawattamies,  of  the  Mississippi  and  Illi 
nois  rivers.  Part  of  the  Chippewas  have  also  treated 
and  are  peaceable.  I  continually  keep  agents  among 
them  to  watch  their  motions  and  keep  them  peaceably 
inclined.  Many  of  the  Cherokees,  Chickasaws,  and  their 
confederates,  are,  I  fear,  ill  disposed.  It  would  be 
well  if  Colonel  Montgomery  should  give  them  a  dress 
ing  as  he  comes  down  the  Tennessee.  There  can  be 
no  peace  expected  from  many  nations  while  the  English 
are  at  Detroit.  I  strongly  suspect  they  will  turn  their 
arms  against  the  Illinois,  as  they  will  be  encouraged. 
I  shall  always  be  on  my  guard,  watching  every  oppor 
tunity  to  take  advantage  of  the  enemy ;  and,  if  I  am 
eyer  able  to  muster  six  or  seven  hundred  men,  I  shall 
give  them  a  shorter  distance  to  come  and  fight  me  than 
this  place." 

There  was  one  circumstance  very  distressing  to  the 
country,  Clark  thought,  and  that  was  the  discredit 
which  American  paper  money,  had  fallen  into  in  the 
Illinois, —  caused  by  the  great  number  of  traders  who 
had  come  there  in  his  absence,  "each  outbidding  the 
other,  giving  prices  unknown  in  this  country  by  five 
hundred  per  cent.,'1  said  the  Colonel,  "by  which  the 
people  conceived  it  to  be  of  no  value,  and  both  French 
and  Spaniards  refused  to  take  a  farthing  of  it."  Pro 
visions  had  advanced  three  prices  in  two  months,  and 
supplies  were  not  to  be  obtained  in  any  other  way  than 
by  the  commander  giving  his  own  bonds,  or  exchang 
ing  goods,*  or  taking  what  he  wanted  by  force.  Sev 
eral  of  the  merchants  were  advancing  considerable 

*  That  is,  such  as  he  had  brought  from  Vincennes  taken 
from  the  enemy.  (See  History  of  the  Girtys,  p.  106.)  These 
goods  did  not  include,  of  course,  such  as  had  been  set  aside 
for  the  expected  reinforcement  from  the  east. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      449 

amounts  of  their  own  property  rather  than  the  service 
should  suffer,  by  which  Clark  was  sensible  they  would 
lose  greatly,  unless  some  method  was  taken  to  raise 
the  credit  of  the  money  in  circulation  or  a  sum  be  sent 
to  [New]  Orleans  for  the  payment  of  the  expenses  of 
this  place,  which  would  at  once  reduce  the  price  of 
every  species  of  provisions,  money  being  of  little  ser 
vice  to  them  unless  it  would  pass  at  the  posts  they 
trade  at.  The  Colonel  said  he  had  drawn  some  bills 
on  Mr.  Pollock  in  New  Orleans,  as  he  had  no  money 
with  him.  Pollock  would  accept  the  bills,  but  had  not 
the  cash  to  pay  them  off,  though  the  sums  were  trifling ; 
"so  that,"  said  Clark,  "we  have  little  credit  to  expect 
from  that  quarter-"* 

Clark  assured  the  Virginia  Governor  that  he  would 
take  every  step  he  possibly  could  for  laying  up  a  suffi 
cient  quantity  of  provisions,  f  and  he  hoped  the  Execu 
tive  of  the  State  would  immediately  send  him  an  ex 
press  with  instructions.  Public  expenses,  he  declared, 
had  "hitherto  been  very  low"  and  might  continue  so, 
in  the  Illinois,  if  a  correspondence  was  fixed  at  New 
Orleans  for  payment  of  the  expenses  of  the  country, 
or  if  gold  and  silver  could  be  sent.  "I  am  glad,"  says 
Clark,  "to  hear  of  Colonel  Todd's  appointment.  I 
think  the  government  has  taken  the  only  step  that  it 

*  History  of  the  Girtys,  in  the  place  last  cited,  confirms 
this  statement. 

t  May  22,  1779,  Clark  drew  for  $300  "in  favor  of  Mr. 
Rapicault  or  order,"  on  the  Treasurer  of  Virginia  or  Oliver 
Pollock  at  New  Orleans,  "for  supplies,  etc.,  furnished  garri 
son"  at  Kaskaskia.  Also,  on  the  next  day,  he  drew  in  favor 
of  the  same  for  $617,  on  the  Treasurer  of  Virginia  "for  the 
use  of  the  Commonwealth."  (Calendar  of  Virginia  State 
Papers,  vol.  I,  p.  320.) 

20 


450       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

could  to  make  this  region  flourish.     No  other  regula 
tion  would  have  suited  the  people/'* 

It  was  Clark's  opinion  that  one  regiment  of  troops 
would  be  able  to  clear  the  Mississippi,  and  do  great 
damage  to  the  British  interests  in  Florida.  If  they 
[the  American  soldiers]  would  properly  conduct  them 
selves,  he  thought  they  might  perhaps  gain  the  affec 
tion  of  the  people  so  as  to  raise  a  sufficient  force  "to 
give  a  shock  to  Pensacola."  "Our  alliance,"  he  added, 
"with  France  has  entirely  devoted  this  people  to  our 
interest."  "By  your  instructions  to  me,"  continues 
Clark,  "I  find  you  put  no  confidence  in  General  Mc- 
Intosh's  taking  Detroit,  as  you  encourage  me  to  attempt 
it  if  possible.  It  had  been  twice  in  my  power.  Had  I 
been  able  to  raise  five  hundred  men  when  I  first  arrived 
in  the  country,  or  when  I  was  at  Vincennes  could  have 
secured  my  prisoners  and  only  have  had  three  hundred 
good  men,  I  should  have  attempted  it,  and  I  since 
learn  there  could  have  been  no  doubt  of  success,  as, 
by  some  gentlemen  lately  arrived  from  that  post,  we 
are  informed  that  the  town  and  country  kept  three 
days'  feasting  and  diversions  on  hearing  of  my  success 
against  Mr.  Hamilton ;  and  they  were  so  certain-  of  my 
embracing  the  fair  opportunity  of  possessing  myself 
of  that  post  that  the  merchants  and  others  provided 
many  necessaries  for  us  on  our  arrival, —  the  garrison, 
consisting  of  only  eighty  men,  not  daring  to  stop  their 
diversions.  They  are  now  completing  a  new  fort; 

*  The  "regulation"  referred  to  by  the  Colonel  was  the 
creation  of  the  county  of  the  Illinois  and  the  appointment  of 
John  Todd  as  its  Lieutenant ;  the  news  of  which  had  reached 
Clark  while  he  was  yet  in  Vincennes,  by  the  hand  of  William 
Myers, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       451 

and  I  fear  it  will  be  too  strong  for  any  force  I  shall 
ever  be  able  to  raise  in  this  country."* 

Notwithstanding  Clark's  letter  dated  the  day  pre 
vious  to  the  last  one  of  April,  was  intended  to  apprise 
the  Governor  of  Virginia  (now  that  Myres  had  beer* 
killed  on  his  way,  with  the  first  one  written)  of  his  suc 
cess  at  Vincennes,  yet  as  early  as  the  eighteenth  of 
May,  as  already  shown,  the  news  had  reached  Wil- 
liamsburg;  and  the  letter  of  Governor  Henry  to  the 
Virginia  House  of  Delegates  of  that  date  gave  the  in 
formation  officially  to  that  body.  "Unfortunately," 
said  the  Governor,  "the  letters  from  Colonel  Clark, 
containing  no  doubt  particular  accounts  of  this  affair, 
were  in  possession  of  an  express  who  was  murdered 
by  a  party  of  Indians  on  his  way  through  Kentucky 
to  this  place.  The  letters  as  I  am  informed  were  de 
stroyed.  As  the  facts  which  I  have  mentioned  are 
sufficiently  authenticated,  I  thought  it  material  that 
they  should  be  communicated  to  the  Assembly."f 

On  the  next  day,  Governor  Henry  also  wrote  to 
his  friend,  Richard  Henry  Lee: 

"Governor  Hamilton  of  Detroit  is  a  prisoner,  with 
the  judge  of  that  country,  several  captains,  lieuten 
ants,  and  all  the  British  who  accompanied  Hamilton  in 
his  conquest  of  the  Wabash.  Our  brave  Colonel  Clark 
(sent  out  from  our  militia),  with  one  hundred  Virgin- 

*  Clark  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  April  29,  1779.  The 
messenger  intrusted  with  this  letter  was  one  St.  Vrain,  a 
resident  of  Kaskaskia.  (Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222  n.) 
The  instructions  which  Clark  speaks  of  as  having  been  re 
ceived  by  him  from  Gov.  Henry  were  sent  by  the  latter  in 
care  of  Myers,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  delivered  his  package 
to  the  Colonel  at  Vincennes  upon  his  arrival  in  the  Willing. 

^Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  I,  pp.  319,  320, 
Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  Ill,  p.  241. 


452       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

ians  besieged  the  Governor  in  a  strong  fort  with  several 
hundreds,  and  with  small  arms  alone  fairly  took  the 
whole  corps  prisoners  and  sent- them  into  our  interior 
country.  This  is  a  most  gallant  action  and  I  trust  will 
secure  our  frontiers  in  great  measure.  The  goods 
taken  by  Clark  are  said  to  be  of  immense  amount,  and 
I  hope  will  influence  the  Indians  to  espouse  our  inter 
ests.  Detroit  now  totters ;  and  if  Clark  had  a  few  of 
Mclntosh's  forces  the  place  would  be  ours  directly. 
I  have  lately  sent  the  French  there  all  the  state  papers, 
translated  into  their  language,  by  the  hands  of  a  priest, 
who  I  believe  has  been  very  active.  I  cannot  give  you 
the  other  particulars  of  Clark's  success,  his  messenger 
to  me  being  killed  and  the  letters  torn  by  the  Indians."* 
For  the  greater  security  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
county  of  Illinois,  a  Virginia  law  was  passed  providing 
for  the  raising  of  a  troop  of  horse.  This  was  in  May. 
The  troop  was  to  consist  of  one  captain,  one  lieutenant, 
one  cornet,  and  thirty-two  privates.  The  same  law 
declared  that  "every  soldier  who  enlisted  into  the  corps 
of  volunteers  commanded  by  Colonel  George  Rogers 
Clark  and  continued  therein  till  the  taking  of  the  sev 
eral  posts  in  the  Illinois  country"  should,  "at  the  end 

*  Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  II,  pp.  30,  31.  It  will  be 
noticed,  from  the  concluding  words  of  the  Governor,  that  he 
had  not,  at  date  of  writing,  received  Clark's  letter  from  Kas- 
kaskia,  of  April  29,  giving  details  of  the  capture  of  Hamilton. 
Twenty-one  days  were  too  few  for  its  transmission  by  express 
from  Kaskaskia  to  Williamsburg.  It  is  not,  therefore,  at  all 
surprising  that  Gov.  Henry  (relying  solely  upon  reports) 
should  have  underestimated  Clark's  force  when  the  latter 
attacked  Fort  Sackville  and  overestimated  Hamilton's.  Mc 
lntosh's  forces  which  he  speaks  of  were  really  Brodhead's; 
as  the  former  was  then  no  longer  in  command  at  Fort  Pitt 
of  the  Western  Department. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       453 

of  the  war,  be  entitled  to  a  grant  of  two  hundred  acres 
of  any  unappropriated  lands"  within  that  Common 
wealth.  And  every  able-bodied  freeman  who  should 
enlist,  or  who,  having  enlisted  for  a  period  unexpired, 
should  re-enlist  to  serve  during  the  war,  among  the 
forces  ordered  for  the  protection  and  defense  of  the 
county  of  Illinois,  should  receive  a  bounty  of  seven 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  and  at  the  end  of  the  war, 
should  be  entitled  to  one  hundred  acres  of  land. 

John  Todd,  who  had  been  commissioned  a  lieuten 
ant  of  Illinois  county,  did  not  reach  Kaskaskia  from 
his  home  in  Kentucky  until  the  month  last  mentioned. 
When  he  came  Colonel  Clark  was  "happily  rid  of  a 
piece  of  trouble"  that  he  "had  no  delight  in" —  the 
administration  of  civil  affairs.  But  the  powers  granted 
to  Todd  were  greater  than  had  ever  before  been  given 
the  Lieutenant  of  a  county  by  Virginia,  and  greater 
than  were  afterward  given  to  such  an  officer  by  that 
State.  He  could  even  pardon  all  offenses  except  mur 
der  and  treason.* 

The  reinforcement  which  was  to  be  recruited  by 
Colonel  Montgomery  for  Clark  to  enable  the  latter  to 
fill  up  his  battalion  was  only  ready  to  move  in  March, 
1779, —  one  hundred  of  his  men  under  Major  Slaughter 
having  marched  in  January  for  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio , 
but  had  it  not  been  that,  early  in  the  year  the  Cher- 
okees  and  other  southern  Indians  became  hostile,  ex 
tending  their  ravages  from  Georgia  to  Pennsylvania, 
a  regiment  (or  battalion)  of  twelve-months  men  which 
had  been  enlisted  for  Clark,  in  addition  to  the  force 

*  Consult  in  this  connection  the  Act  creating  Illinois 
county,  Hening's  Virginia  Statutes  at  Large,  vol.  IX,  p.  552, 
and  a  sketch  of,  and  the  Instructions  to  Todd  in  Mason's 
Early  Chicago  and  Illinois,  pp.  286,  289-294. 


454       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

raised  by  Montgomery,  dispatched  to  him;  but  now, 
for  the  cause  just  mentioned,  they  were  withheld. 

Montgomery,  after  getting  together  as  many  more 
men  as  possible,  numbering,  however,  only  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty,  started  for  the  Illinois,  but  he  engaged 
an  enemy  before  reaching  his  destination  not  antici 
pated  when  his  force  was  enlisted.  It  happened  in  this 
wise.  There  was  a  settlement  of  renegade  Cherokees 
on  the  Tennessee,  at  and  below  the  mouth  of  the  Chick- 
amauga.  These  Indians  were  now  exceedingly  hostile ; 
and  a  considerable  force  under  Evan  Shelby  prepared 
to  march  against  their  towns. 

Montgomery,  as  he  was  to  go  down  the  Tennessee, 
could,  with  little  trouble,  join  Shelby  on  the  proposed 
expedition ;  and  he  actually  did  reinforce  him  with  his 
whole  party.  The  general  rendezvous  was  at  the 
mouth  of  Big  creek,  near  the  present  town  of  Rogers- 
ville,  in  Tennessee.  The  army  floated  down  the  river 
for  three  hundred  miles,  attacked  the  savages,  killed 
some  of  their  warriors,  burnt  their  towns,  and 
destroyed  their  provisions.*  Montgomery  then  contin 
ued  down  the  Tennessee,  reaching  Kaskaskia  by  way 
of  that  river,  the  Ohio,  and  the  Mississippi,  on  the 

*  The  idea  expressed  by  Clark  in  his  letter  of  the  twenty- 
ninth  of  April,  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  that  "it  would 
be  well  if  Colonel  Montgomery  should  give  them  [the  Chero 
kees]  a  dressing  as  he  comes  down  the  Tennessee,  thus  be 
came,  with  the  aid  of  Shelby,  a  reality.  And  it  here  may  be 
said  that  the  capture  of  Hamilton  and  the  "dressing"  given 
the  Cherokees,  effectually  put  an  end  to  any  efforts  put  forth 
because  of  the  plan  sent  by  the  first  mentioned  in  the  previ 
ous  December  to  the  British  Indian  agent  Stuart,  "to  reconcile 
the  Southern  Indians  with  the  Shawanese  and  other  Northern 
nations,  and  to  concert  a  general  invasion  of  the  frontiers." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       455 

twentieth  of  May,  but  with  not  half  the  number  of 
men  expected  by  Clark.  This  was  a  great  disappoint 
ment  to  the  Colonel. 

Clark  still  resolved  to  rendezvous  at  Vincennes, 
thinking  that,  if  he  could  raise  three  hundred  men,  he 
would  risk  the  undertaking  against  Detroit ;  as  the  new 
fortification  there,  although  the  work  was  being  vigor 
ously  prosecuted  by  Captain  Lernoult,  was  not  com 
pleted,  nor  could  it  be  according  to  the  plan,  before 
he  could  reach  the  place. 

"We  had,"  says  Clark,  "a  prospect  of  a  consider 
able  reinforcement  from  Kentucky,  and  we  yet  flatter 
ed  ourselves  that  something  might  be  done :  at  least 
we  might  maneuver  in  such  a  manner  as  to  keep  the 
enemy  in  hot  water  and  in  suspense  and  prevent  their 
doing  our  frontiers  much  damage.  We  went  on  pro 
curing  supplies  and  did  not  lose  sight  of  our  object." 

The  news  of  the  success  of  the  Americans  and  their 
volunteer  allies  of  the  Illinois  against  Hamilton's  force 
in  Vincennes,  although  more  than  a  month  in  reaching 
the  Kentucky  settlements,  was  every  where  hailed  with 
the  liveliest  expressions  of  joy  among  them;  and  when 
finally,  .it  became  known  generally  throughout  Virginia, 
there  was  great  delight  manifested,  especially  in  the 
border  counties.  It  was,  indeed,  a  source  of  pleasure 
to  the  whole  country.  But  Governor  Jefferson  would 
wait  for  direct  information  from  Clark  before  notify 
ing  Washington  officially  of  Hamilton's  capture.  Past 
the  middle  of  June,  he  wrote  the  Commander-in-chief : 
"I  have  the  pleasure  to  enclose  you  the  particulars  of 
Colonel  Clark's  success  against  Vincennes  as  stated  in 
his  letter  lately  received ;  the  messenger,  with  his  first 
letter,  having  been  killed.  I  fear  it  will  be  impossible 


456       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


for  Colonel  Clark  to  be  so  strengthened  as  to  enable 
him  to  do  what  he  desires.  Indeed,  the  express  [St. 
Vrain]  who  brought  this  letter,  gives  us  reason  to  fear 
Vincennes  is  in  danger  from  a  large  body  of  Indians 
collected  to  attack  it,  and  said,  when  he  came  from 
Kaskaskia,  to  be  within  thirty  leagues  of  the  place."* 

Jefferson's  reply  to  the  Colonel  upon  receiving  the 
letter  was  brief  and  (purposely)  vague,  but  easily  un 
derstood  by  Clark.  The  Governor  knew  the  danger  of 
its  transmission  and,  instead  of  a  lengthy  answer,  gave 
St.  Vrain,  the  messenger,  full  verbal  instructions  to  be 
repeated  to  the  Colonel.  The  real  meaning  of  what 
he  wrote  was  that  his  (Clark's)  wishes  would  be  at 
tended  to ;  that  much  solicitation  would  be  felt  for  the 
result  of  the  expedition  to  Detroit  (by  way  of  the 
Wabash)  ;  that  it  would  at  least  delay  any  movement 
towards  the  frontier  by  the  enemy  from  that  post ;  and 
that,  if  successful,  it  would  have,  ultimately,  an  im 
portant  bearing  in  establishing  the  northwestern  bound 
ary  of  the  United  States.f 

The  rapid  transmission  of  the  news  of  Hamilton's 
capture  to  Detroit  was  in  striking  contrast  to  the  slow 
ness  of  the  information  reaching  the  Virginia  author- 

*  Jefferson  to  Washington,  from  Williamsburg,  June  23, 
1779.  (Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  221).  The  letter  men 
tioned  by  Jefferson  as  "lately  received"  was  the  one  written 
by  Clark  April  29,  after  his  return  to  Kaskaskia  from  Vin 
cennes.  But  Washington  by  the  reception  of  "Bowman's 
Journal"  had  already  been  put  in  possession  of  more  par 
ticulars  concerning  the  march  of  Clark  and  his  capture  of 
Hamilton  than  Jefferson  had  obtained.  There  was  no  foun 
dation  for  the  report  brought  by  St.  Vrain  of  a  large  body 
of  hostile  Indians  being  within  thirty  leagues  of  Vincennes. 

t  Only  a  fragment  of  the  letter  has  been  preserved.  (See 
Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CXXVI.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       457 

ities  in  Williamsburg.  But  Captain^  Chesng  (with  two 
Wyandot  Indians)  safely  arriving  at  the  first  mentioned 
place,  in  the  first  half  of  March,  made  his  report. 
It  was  as  a  thunderbolt  from  a  clear  sky  to  Captain 
Lernoult  —  a  "most  unlucky  shake,"  as  he  termed  it. 
Such  a  catastrophe  he  had  not  dreamed  of.  That  Vin- 
cennes  had  been  "retaken  by  Colonel  Clark,"  and  the 
Governor  and  whole  garrison  made  prisoners,  was 
astounding  news.  The  Captain  soon  dispatched  the 
armed  sloop  Felicity  to  Fort  Erie  with  a  letter  to  Col 
onel  Batton  at  Niagara,  conveying  the  surprising  in 
formation  to  the  commandant,*  who  lost  no  time  in 
transmitting  it  to  General  Haldimand. 

As  the  loss  of  Fort  Sackville  opened  a  new  road 
for  the  Americans  to  his  post  by  the  Maumee,  Lernoult 
urgently  requested  that  a  strong  reinforcement  be  sent 
him  from  Niagara,  especially  as  his  new  fort  was  not 
yet  in  a  state  to  be  properly  defended.  "The  loss  of 
Governor  Hamilton,"  said  the  Detroit  commander,  "is 
a  most  feeling  one  to  me  ;  I  find  the  burden  heavy  with 
out  assistance;  it  requires,  I  confess,  superior  abilities 
and  a  better  constitution  [than  I  have]  ;  I  will  do  my 
best  however"  ,f 

The  Canadians  in  Detroit  received  the  account  of 
Captain  Chesne  with  unbounded  satisfaction.  Lern 
oult  declared  they  were  "all  rebels  to  a  man."  The 
Captain  needed  help  upon  his  new  fortification.  "The 
Canadians,"  he  wrote,  "exceedingly  assuming  on  our 
bad  success  and  weakness,  not  one  of  them  will  lend  a 
hand."J  It  was  true  then  what  Clark  subsequently 
wrote :  "We  are  informed  that  the  town  and  country 


*  Lernoult  to  Bolton,  March  2fi,  1779. —  Haldimand  MSS. 

fid. 

JId. 


458       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

[Detroit]  kept  three  days'  feasting  and  diversions  on 
hearing  of  my  success  against  Mr.  Hamilton." 

It  may  be  presumed  that  the  Canadians  sent  home 
from  Vincennes  by  the  Colonel,  on  their  parole,  upon 
reaching  Detroit  added  not  a  little  to  the  excitement. 
The  Colonel  declares  that  after  they  had  gone  he  had 
spies  constantly  "to  and  from  Detroit,"  and  that  he 
learned  by  them  that  the  returned  prisoners  "answered 
every  purpose  he  could  have  wished  for  by  prejudic 
ing  their  friends  in  favor  of  America.  So  certain  were 
the  inhabitants  of  that  post  of  my  marching  immedi 
ately  against  it,  that  they  made  provision  for  me  in 
defiance  of  the  garrison."  But  he  added :  "Many  of 
them  have  paid  dearly  for  it  since."  "We  learned," 
are  his  words  years  after,  "that  they  made  great  havoc 
with  the  British  interest  on  their  return  .  .  .  pub 
licly  saying  that  they  had  taken  an  oath  not  to  fight 
against  Americans,  but  they  had  not  sworn  not  to  fight 
for  them,  etc. ;  and  matters  were  carried  to  such  a 
hight,  that  the  commanding  officer  [Lernoult]  thought 
it  prudent  not  to  take  notice  of  any  thing  that  was  said 
or  done."  However,  the  commandant  was  not  so  com 
plaisant,  as  we  know,  and  as  his  words  to  the  Niagara 
commander  plainly  indicate.  He  soon  began  to  repress 
the  ardor  of  the  "rebels,"  having  received  full  authority 
for  so  doing  from  the  Commander-in-chief,  who  wrote 
him  on  the  thirteenth  of  June : 

"SiR :  —  Having  certain  Intelligence  that  many  of  the 
inhabitants  in  your  neighborhood  are  not  only  disaffected  to 
Government,  but  in  the  present  critical  situation  of  public 
affairs,  may  possibly  prove  dangerous  enemies  to  the  King. 
I  have  judged  it  necessary  for  His  Majesty's  service,  hereby 
to  authorize  you  to  apprehend  any  person  or  persons  whom 
you  may  have  cause  to  believe  is  in  any  manner  directly  or 
indirectly  aiding,  or  abetting  the  rebels  or  their  allies,  either 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      459 

with  provisions,  intelligence  or  otherwise,  and  that  you  imme 
diately  send  them  to  Niagara,  to  be  detained  there  or  for 
warded  to  Carleton  Island  as  Lt.  Col.  Bolton  may  judge  best 
for  the  public  service. 

"And  it  is  also  your  duty  to  require,  and  obtain  from  all 
persons  of  doubtful  character,  such  hostages  as  may  effectually 
prevent  them  or  any  part  of  their  family  from  taking  an 
active  part  against  His  Majesty's  Government,  or  the  troops 
under  your  command."* 

There  were  added  to  the  forces  in  Detroit  late  in 
the  Spring  two  hundred  men  from  Niagara,  mostly 
regulars;  a 'few,  however,  were  "prisoners  who  were 
bought  of  the  Indians  and  made  soldiers  of."  To  add 
to  the  security  of  Detroit,  one  of  the  largest  of  the 
armed  vessels  upon  Lake  Erie  was  stationed  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Maumee  to  gain  intelligence  of  any  far 
ther  movement  of  Clark,  and  to  convey  the  news 
quickly  to  Captain  Lernoult, —  also  to  render  any  other 
necessary  assistance  on  that  line  of  communication. 

It  will  be  readily  presumed  that,  of  all  the  precau 
tions  taken  by  Captain  Lernoult  to  guard  against  the 
capture  of  Detroit  by  the  Americans  who  might  come 
either  from  Pittsburgh  or  Vincennes, —  to  hurry  the 
work  on  his  new  fort  was  the  one  which  engaged  his 
chief  attention.  He  did  not  slacken  his  efforts  in  that 
regard  whatever  else  might  seem  to  demand  his  time. 

Early  in  April,  General  Haldimand  dispatched  to 
Niagara  and  Detroit  Captain  Brehm,  hfs  aid-de-camp, 
to  look  into  affairs  to  the  westward.  To  Captain  Lern 
oult,  the  General  wrote:  "Anxious  to  be  exactly  in 
formed  as  soon  as  practicable,  of  the  true  state  of 
things  in  the  Upper  Country,  I  send  Captain  Brehm, 
my  aid-de-camp,  as  far  as  Detroit ;  and  it  is  my  re- 

*  Haldimand  MSS. 


460       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

quest  you  would  open  yourself  to  him  with  the  utmost 
freedom  as  to  a  person  in  whom  you  may  safely  con 
fide  upon  all  matters  which  concern  the  King's  service 
in  those  parts.  Captain  Brehm  is  directed  to  give  you 
my  orders  respecting  your  post,  which  he  is  to  deliver 
you  in  writing,  signed  with  his  own  hand,  and  to  which 
you  will  in  every  part  thereof  exactly  conform  your 
self".* 

Captain  Brehm  did  not  reach  Detroit  until  the 
twenty-fifth  of  May.  Three  days  thereafter,  he  sent 
his  first  letter  to  the  Commander-in-chief.  To  him, 
Lernoult  "declared  that  the  arrival  of  the  two  hun 
dred  men  at  his  post  had  made  a  great  alteration  in 
the  inhabitants  and  even  among  the  Indians;  the  for 
mer,  before  that,  were  insolent  and  almost  daring  in 
their  behavior."  "The  rebels,"  continued  Brehm, 
"having  spread  among  all  the  Western  or  Wabash  or 
[and]  Illinois  Indians  by  some  disaffected  savages 
[the  report]  that  the  French,  Spanish  (even  Germans) 
and  Americans  are  all  joined  together  to  drive  the 
English  out  of  America;  [and  this]  has  not  only  an 
effect  among  the  Indians,  but  likewise  among  the 
French  from  the  Illinois  and  Wabash  through  this 
whole  country."  But  Captain  Brehm  assured  the  Com 
mander-in-chief  that  Captain  Lernoult  was  not  idle  in 
counteracting  the  designs  of  the  "rebels."  As  to  the 
condition  of  the  new  fort  at  Detroit,  the  writer  de 
clared  it  was  very  much  advanced ;  and,  if  it  could  be 
finished  before  being  attacked,  it  would  be  very  ten- 
able.f  He  wrote  some  days  after  that  Lernoult  and 

*  Haldimand  to  Lernoult,  April  8,  1779.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 

f  Brehm  to  Haldimand,  May  28,  1779.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC,       461 

his  garrison  were  very  busy  in  working  upon  the  fort 
-  "they  have  already  finished  a  bomb-proof  magazine 
and    store-house   and   are   now   making   barracks   for 
officers  and  men  all  to  be  small-shell  proof."* 

The  general  effect  produced  by  the  capture  of  Ham 
ilton  and  his  force  was  expressed  in  the  clearest  man 
ner  by  one  at  Detroit  who  fully  comprehended  how 
matters  stood  a  few  months  afterward  with  the  Indian 
allies  of  Britain:  "[It]  has  not  only  discouraged  many 
tribes  well  disposed,  but  inclined  others  who  were 
wavering,  to  stand  neuter,  so  that  a  force  to  act  in  con 
junction  with  them  appears  necessary  to  engage  them 
again  to  act  with  vigor  against  the  enemy."f 

It  was  over  a  month  after  Hamilton's  surrender 
before  the  tidings  reached  Michilimackinac.  De 
Peyster  was  astounded. 

On  the  arrival  of  Captain  Langlade  at  Green  Bay 
from  his  attempt  to  induce  the  Ottawas  and  Chippewas 
at  the  Grand  river  to  march  to  the  aid  of  Hamilton, 
he  received  from  the  latter  an  order  acquainting  him 
that  he  would  winter  at  Vincennes,  and  requiring  him 
and  Gautier  to  join  him  early  in  the  Spring,  by  way  of 
the  Illinois  river.  The  Captain  accordingly  set  out 
with  some  Indians,  in  good  time,  going  by  way  of 
Milwaukee,  "where  he  received  accounts  of  Mr.  Hamil 
ton  being  taken,  when  the  Indians  disheartened,  would 
proceed  no  farther;"  so  the  Captain  returned.  De 
Peyster  was  informed  by  Langlade,  who  went  to  Mich 
ilimackinac,  arriving  there  on  the  twelfth  of  May,  that 
a  Canadian  at  the  head  of  twenty  horsemen  was  travel 
ing  through  the  Milwaukee  and  Sac  country,  -at  the 

*  Same  to  same,  June  23,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 
t  Alexander  McKee  to  Haldimand.,  July  16,  1779.  — Haldi 
mand  MSS. 


462       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

time  of  his  visit,  purchasing  horses  for  Colonel  Clark, 
—  telling  the  Indians  that  the  Colonel  would  be  at 
Green  Bay  soon  with  three  hundred  men.  Also  on  the 
twentieth  of  February,  Mr.  Chevalier,  of  St.  Joseph, 
wrote  De  Peyster,  that  the  "rebels"  had  employed 
Canadians  to  purchase  horses  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Chicago,  to  mount  their  cavalry.  Gautier,  upon  re 
ceiving  Hamilton's  order,  gathered  together  a  consider 
able  band  of  Winnebagoes  and  Menomonees ;  marched 
with  them  down  the  Wisconsin  but  was  turned  back 
by  the  Sacs  and  Foxes,  before  news  reached  him  of 
the  surrender  of  Hamilton. 

"I  do  not  care,"  wrote  De  Peyster  on  the  thirteenth 
of  May,  to  General  Haldimand,  "how  soon  Mr.  Clark 
appears,  provided  he  comes  by  Lake  Michigan  and  the 
Indians  prove  staunch ;  and,  above  all,  that  the  Cana 
dians  do  not  follow  the  example  of  their  brethren  at  the 
Illinois,  who  have  joined  the  rebels  to  a  man.  I  am  in 
hopes  that  their  connection  at  Montreal  will  be  a  check 
upon  them.  If  I  had  armed  vessels  I  could  make  them 
constantly  coast  Lake  Michigan  to  awe  the  Indians, 
and  prevent  the  rebels  building  boats.  There  is  a  small 
sloop  here,  as  already  reported,  but  no  sailors,  nor  will 
my  present  garrison  admit  of  any  detachment,  it  not 
being  by  one-half  sufficient  to  do  the  necessary  duty 
here.  I  shall  allow  the  traders  to  come  to  this  post ; 
but  if  things  do  not  greatly  change,  I  will  not  let  one 
go  the  Green  Bay  road.  The  Sacs  and  Foxes  seem 
easy  about  the  matter ;  but  they  will  soon  open  their 
eyes,  if  it  is  possible  effectually  to  restrain  that  trade." 
The  commandant  adds :  "If  Detroit  should  be  taken, 
it  is  evident  we  would  have  but  a  dismal  prospect".* 

*  Haldimand   MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC,       463 

The  first  of  June,  De  Peyster  wrote  that  the  Indians 
were  growing  very  importunate  since  hearing  that  the 
French  were  assisting  the  "rebels."  Hamilton's  defeat 
had  cooled  the  savages  in  general ;  but  the  Michilimack- 
inac  commander  declared  he  had  a  great  number  to 
send  to  Detroit,  if  they  should  be  wanted.  Gautier 
reached  De  Peyster's  post  during  the  latter  half  of 
May,  with  a  large  band  of  Winnebagoes  and  Menom- 
onees,  which  had  been  with  him  to  the  Mississippi,  and 
had  been  stopped  by  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  on  their  way 
to  join  Hamilton.  They  soon  went  home,  however, 
fearing  the  Chippewas  of  the  plains  and  the  Sacs 
would  in  their  absence,  disturb  their  villages.  "They 
are  gone,"  wrote  De  Peyster,  "with  promises  to  bring 
me  some  prisoners  from  Kaskaskia ;  scalps  I  have  posi 
tively  forbid,  to  prevent  cruelty  and  lest  they  should 
pawn  old  ones  or  those  of  innocent  persons,  a  deceit 
I  think  them  often  guilty  of." 

"The  Sioux  Wabasha,"  continues  the  commandant, 
"was  on  his  march  to  join  Hamilton,  but  stopped  on 
hearing  of  his  defeat.  He  has  sent  the  interpreter 
with  his  son  and  some  young  men,  with  a  pipe,  telling 
me  that  he  waits  my  further  orders ;  that  he  has  sil 
enced  the  Foxes ;  and  desires  to  know  if  he  shall  strike 
the  Sacs  for  having  had  talks  with  the  rebels ;  which 
he  is  ready  to,  as  well  as  all  opposers  of  his  Majesty's 
arms.  I  am  sending  off  some  powder  and  clothing  to 
his  nation  as  well  as  to  the  Winnebagoes  and  Menom- 
onees,  to  endeavor  to  keep  them  in  our  firm  alliance; 
if  they  continue  so,  we  have  nothing  to  fear  from  the 
Indians  of  that  quarter."* 

*  De  Peyster  to  Haldimand  in  same. 


464       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC, 

Not  understanding  well  the  idle  habits  of  savages 
and  scarcely  comprehending  the  numbers  who  were 
dependent  on  De  Peyster  for  supplies,  General  Haldi- 
mand  asked  the  Michilimackinac  commandant  by  letter 
during  the  winter,  whether  some  plan —  such  as  the 
use  by  his  garrison  of  dried  venison  and  of  fish — • 
could  not  be  hit  upon  to  lessen  the  great  expense  of 
furnishing  his  post  with  provision.  But  the  Com 
mander-in-chief  was  informed  that  any  such  scheme 
was  not  possible  to  be  carried  out.  "Supplying  the 
troops  here,"  he  wrote  on  the  first  of  June,  "with  any 
thing  but  store  provisions  is  impracticable ;  the  taking 
of  fish  is  too  precarious ;  most  of  what  they  take  now, 
I  supply  the  Indians  with.  And  as  to  the  Indian  meat, 
there  are  not  five  carcasses  of- any  kind  brought  to 
this  post  in  the  course  of  a  year.  Formerly,  there 
used  to  be  more,  but  there  are  fewer  animals ;  and  the 
Indians,  since  the  beginning  of  the  war,  are  become 
very  idle,  even  in  the  hunting  season.  I  am  obliged 
to  help  maintain  all  who  live  within  fifty  or  sixty 
miles  of  this  place.  Were  it  not  for  the  sugar  in  the 
spring,  many  would  starve." 

By  the  middle  of  June,  the  Indians  were  "hanging 
upon"  De  Peyster  in  great  numbers,  to  know  if  they 
were  to  be  employed  to  go  against  the  "rebels."  That 
officer  could  not  learn  from  below  whether  Captain 
Lernoult  needed  the  assistance  of  any ;  and  he  was 
loath  to  send  off  parties  to  the  Illinois  without  the 
express  orders  of  the .  Commander-in-chief  for  so 
doing ;  for,  at  best,  in  his  judgment,  "it  would  only 
be  productive  of  much  cruelty  perhaps  exercised  upon 
the  undeserving;"  still  many  parties  "would  steal 

off". 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       465 

So  soon  as  De  Peyster  received  the  news  of  the 
surrender  of  Fort  Sackville,  he  took  every  pains  to 
place  his  fort  in  as  proper  state  of  defense  as  possible. 
He  threw  down  such  houses  as  encumbered  it,  making 
use  of  the  timber  "together  with  the  cedar  fences,"  to 
help  strengthen  the  fortification.  On  the  twentieth 
of  June,  he  wrote  General  Haldimand,  that  the  whole 
fort  was  lined  with  good,  strong  cedar  pickets  and  a 
banquet  thrown  up  so  as  to  fire  from  a  good  hight 
through  the  loop-holes.  Although  the  barracks  would 
hold  but  seventy-two  men,  "still  there  are  traders 
houses  left,"  De  Peyster  declared,  "which  may  be  pur 
chased  and  easily  fitted  to  serve  the  purpose."  The 
sand  hills  which  commanded  the  fort  were  sources  of 
much  trouble.  One  of  these  still  remained  to  be  re 
moved.  After  every  storm,  the  drifts  of  sand  like 
drifts  of  snow,  were  to  be  seen,  and  these  had  to  be 
removed. 

Towards  the  last  of  June,  De  Peyster  had  received 
pretty  full  accounts  from  the  Illinois.  He  was  glad 
to  know  that  Kaskaskia  was  not  fortified  and  that  the 
fort  there  was  a  "sorry"  affair  —  "an  enclosure  round 
the  Jesuits'  college,  with  two  plank  houses  at  opposite 
angles,  mounting  two  four-pounders  each  on  the 
ground  floor."  Besides  these,  there  were  some  swivels 
mounted.  But  there  was  one  thing  that  gave  the 
Michilimackinac  commander  uneasiness.  "One  Gode- 
froy  Linctot,"  had  joined  the  "rebels."  "He  has," 
declared  De  Peyster,  "too  much  to  say  amongst 
the  Indians ;  every  method  should  therefore  be  used 
to  get  him  into  our  hands ;  for  which  purpose  (and  to 
reconnoiter)  I  send  off  Gautier  with  a  party  of  Indians 

*De  Peyster  to  Haldimand. —  Haldimand  MSS. 
30 


466       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


for  Le  Pee  [Peoria],  a  small  fort  on  the  Illinois 
river,  where  he  [Linctot]  is  at  present  with  some  other 
traders  who  had  better  be  here.  Gautier  has  orders 
to  burn  the  fort."  "  The  Pay'  adds  the  Michilimack- 
inac  commandant,  is  about  eighty  leagues  from  Kas- 
kaskia."* 

*  Same  to  same,  June  27,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS.  "The 
Pay"  had  a  number  of  snyonyms :  Peoria,  Le  Pee,  Le  Pay, 
Au  Pay,  Opa,  the  Pe,  Pay,  Pays,  Pe,  Pees.  The  village 
was  situated  on  the  west  bank  of  Peoria  Lake,  one  and  a 
half  miles  above  its  outlet.  (Matson's  Pioneers  of  Illinois, 
pp.  216,  217.)  In  a  letter  written  by  Patrick  Sinclair,  then 
Lieutenant  Governor  at  Michilimackinac  to  Brehm,  Oct. 
29,  1779,  he  said  that  Mons.  Dnrand  upon  oath  related  the 
affairs  of  the  Illinois  to  be  much  in  the  condition  represented 
by  Major  De  Peyster  to  his  Excellency  [Gen.  Haldimand, 
June  29,  1779],  except  that  there  was  no  fort  at  the  Pe. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

HITHERTO,  there  had  been  no  desertions  from 
Kaskaskia  to  the  enemy ;  now,  however,  by 
the  wiles  of  one  of  Captain  George's  officers 
who  had  determined  to  go  over  to  the  British,  three 
were  induced  to  forsake  the  cause  of  liberty  and  put 
themselves  under  the  protection  of  Captain  Lernoult  at 
Detroit.  These  are  the  particulars:  George  Girty,  a 
second  lieutenant  in  what  was  formerly  Captain  Wil- 
ling's  company  (now  Captain  George's),  hearing  that 
his  brothers,  Simon  and  James  Girty,  had  joined  the 
British  at  Detroit,  determined  to  forsake  his  compan- 
ions-in-arms, —  in  short,  to  desert.  He  made  known 
his  intentions  to  some  of  the  prisoners  taken  by  Clark 
at  Vincennes,  who  had  been  brought  to  Kaskaskia.  He 
offered  to  conduct  them  safely  to  Captain  Lernoult. 
Sixteen  of  them  agreed  to  the  proposition ;  but  one  en 
tering  an  information  and  making  oath  against  Girty, 
he  was  seized,  put  in  irons,  and  closely  confined.  On 
the  fourth  day  of  May,  he  found  means  to  effect  his 
escape  to  the  Spanish  side  of  the  Mississippi.  Upon 
his  arrival  in  St.  Louis,  the  commandant  of  the  Spanish 
garrison  ordered  him  into  confinement,  but  next  morn 
ing,  after  some  inquiry,  released  him,  informing  him 
that  it  was  not  his  intention  to  interfere  with  or  molest 
any  person  on  either  side,  unless  for  murder  or  some 
capital  offense  against  civil  society,  and  that  it  was 
his  desire  to  remain  in  tranquility,  and  to  treat  all  well 
who  behave  as  becometh  them. 

Girty,   now    that   he   was   set   at   liberty,   plotted 
again  to  secure  the  escape  of  some  of  Clark's  prisoners 

(467) 


468       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

—  succeeding,  finally,  in  collecting  four  soldiers  of  the 
King's    (or   8th)    regiment,  three  deserters   from  the 
Americans,  and  one  prisoner  from  Captain  Lamothe's 
company  (a  fifer).     They  set  out  on  the  nineteenth  of 
June   from   the    Illinois   and   reached   Detroit   on  the 
eighth  of  August  following.*     Whether  the  three  de 
serters  were  all  from  Captain  George's  company  is  un 
known,  f 

As  a  first  movement  looking  to  an  attack  on  De 
troit,  Clark  dispatched  from  Kaskaskia  Godefroy  Lin- 
clot  (a  Canadian,  formerly  an  ensign  in  the  French 
service  but  latterly  a  merchant  of  Vincennes,^  and  who 
now  joined  the  Colonel's  forces)  on  a  reconnoisance  to 
the  northward  and  northwestward,  with  a  company  of 
forty  mounted  volunteers  —  •  "forty  rebel  Canadians," 
as  an  Englishman  afterward  termed  them.  Linclot 
was  instructed  to  ascend  the  Illinois  river  as  far  as 
Peoria,§  cross  the  country  to  Wea,  and  proceed  thence 
to  Vincennes.  He  was  to  go  among  the  different  na 
tions  of  Indians  under  pretense  of  visiting  them  as  a 
friend,  receive  their  congratulations  on  the  late  suc- 

*  History  of  the  Girtys,  pp.  105-108. 

t  That  the  Spanish  territory,  at  this  time,  afforded  com 
plete  protection  for  deserters  from  American  forces,  is  shown 
by  a  letter  of  Capt.  George  to  Col.  Brodhead,  25  Sept.,  1779.' 

—  Haldimand  MSS.     The  four  soldiers  of  the  kings  (or  8th) 
regiment  were  not  the  only  ones  of  Clark's  prisoners  taken 
by  him  to  Kaskaskia,  who  finally  escaped  from  captivity.     At 
Rogers'  defeat  (before  mentioned  as  occurring  on  the  twenty- 
seventh   of   September    following),    seven   were   rescued   who 
were  being  sent  over  the  mountains,  as  had  been  those  with 
Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton.     (John  Campbell  to  Lernoult, 
Oct.  23,  1779  — Haldimand  MSS.) 

J  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.   Ill,  p.  501. 
§  That  is,  "Le  Pe"  or  "the  Pay." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       469 

cess  of  the  Americans  upon  the  Wabash,  encourage 
such  a  desire  to  submit  to  the  latter  and  desert  the 
English,  but  above  all  to  get  the  latest  intelligence 
from  Detroit.  It  was  the  Colonel's  idea  that  this  ma- 
neuvre  would  result  not  only  in  attaching  the  Illinois 
river  Indians  but  also  those  upon  the  upper  Wabash 
more  firmly  to  his  interest  and  prevent  meanwhile  the 
British  and  such  savages  as  were  their  active  allies 
from  taking  the  field  and  distressing  the  frontiers. 
Linclot  proved  himself,  as  will  presently  be  seen,  a 
most  effective  partisan. 

John  Todd  from  the  time  of  his  arrival  at  Kas- 
kaskia  in  the  first  half  of  May  was,  as  lieutenant  and 
commandant  of  Illinois  county  very  busily  engaged  in 
the  discharge  of  his  official  duties.  On  the  fourteenth, 
he  made  out  commissions  for  the  militia  officers  ap 
pointed  by  him  for  the  District  of  Kaskaskia.  Richard 
Winston  was  made  commandant.  There  were  organ 
ized  two  companies  and  one  at  Prairie  du  Rochen. 
Two  companies  were  also  completed  and  properly  offi 
cered  at  Cahokia.  Courts  were  soon  dispensing  justice 
at  the  first  and  last  places  mentioned,  with  Gabriel 
Cerre  as  president  in  Kaskaskia  and  Godin  Toranjean 
at  Cahokia.* 

It  was  well  understood  by  Todd  that  the  act  creat 
ing  the  county  of  Illinois  was  sufficient  in  its  scope 
to  include  not  only  the  Illinois  villages  but  also  those 
on  the  Wabash ;  it  behooved  him,  therefore,  so  soon 
as  the  machinery  of  civil  government  had  been  put  in 
motion  in  the  towns  just  mentioned,  that  he  should 
repair  to  Vincennes  to  there  organize  the  militia  and 
*  Mason's  Early  Chicago  and  Illinois,  pp.  294-296. 


170       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

establish  a  court  of  justice.  By  the  middle  of  June, 
he  was  ready  to  leave  Kaskaskia  for  that  purpose ;  but, 
before  starting,  he  issued  orders  in  writing  to  Wins 
ton:  "During  my  absence,"  said  he,  "the  command 
will  devolve  upon  you  as  commander  of  Kaskaskia.  If 
Colonel  Clark  should  want  anything  more  for  his  ex 
pedition,  consult  the  members  of  the  court  upon  the 
best  mode  of  proceeding.  If  the  people  will  not  spare 
willingly  (if  in  their  power)  you  must  press  for  what 
is  wanted,  valuing  the  property  by  two  men  under  oath. 
Let  the  military  have  no  pretext  for  forcing  property. 
When  you  order  it  and  the  people  will  not  find  it,  theia 
it  will  be  time  for  them  to  interfere.  By  all  means 
keep  up  a  good  understanding  with  Colonel  Clark  and 
his  officers.  If  this  is  not  the  case,  you  will  be  un 
happy."* 

Once  at  Vincennes  and  the  County  Lieutenant 
addressed  himself  to  the  task  of  organizing  the  militia 
of  that  place.  Major  Legras  was  advanced  to  the  rank 
of  Lieutenant  Colonel  while  Captain  Bosseron  was  pro 
moted  to  Major.  The  number  of  militia  companies 
formed  was  four.  A  court  with  Colonel  Legras  as 
president  was  also  organized.  In  July,  Colonel  Todd 
returned  to  Kaskaskia. f 

Early  in  June,  Colonel  Montgomery  was  dis 
patched  from  Kaskaskia,  by  Clark,  to  go  by  water  to 
Vincennes,  with  all  the  necessary  stores,J  including 
it  seems,  seven  pieces  of  heavy  cannon  and  four  mor- 

*  Id.,  p.  302. 

fid.,  pp.  295,  296.  See,  also,  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of 
1859),  p.  109. 

J  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  Ill,  p.  441. 
(See,  also,  Mason's  Early  Chicago  and  Illinois,  p.  353.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       471 

tars;*  while  Major  Bowman  marched  with  the  prin 
cipal  force  by  land.  The  hopes  of  an  actual  organiza 
tion  of  the  expedition  rested  wholly  upon  the  promised 
reinforcement  of  Colonel  John  Bowman  from  Ken 
tucky.  But  when  the  American  commander  learned, 
as  he  did  in  due  time,  that  the  militia  under  that  officer 
had  gone  across  the  Ohio  to  attack  the  Shawanees, 
he  began  to  be  apprehensive  that  the  number  to  reach 
him  at  Fort  Patrick  Henry  would  be  small.  On  the 
twenty-seventh,  the  Colonel  with  a  party  of  horse 
started  for  Vincennes,  reaching  there  in  four  days, 
where  in  a  short  time  thereafter  his  whole  force  had 
safely  arrived. f  Only  a  small  force  was  left  by  the 
commander  in  Fort  ClarkJ  and  in  Fort  Bowman,§  — 
with  Captain  Lieutenant  Harrison  in  command  at  the 
post  first  mentioned. || 

The  intended  undertaking  against  Detroit  was  in 
reality,  one  of  the  movements  which  Clark  had  thought 
of,  as  we  know,  even  before  starting  on  his  campaign 
against  Kaskaskia.  It  is  to  be  considered  therefore  as 
much  the  result  of  the  conquest  of  the  Illinois  as  was 
the  expedition  against  Vincennes.  First,  the  Illinois 
towns,  then,  finally  on  to  Detroit, —  was  his  ambition 
from  the  start.  But  how  leisurely  were  the  prepara 
tions  —  how  much  less  the  anxieties  —  how  full  of 
hope  the  anticipations  —  now,  in  his  setting  out  for 
Vincennes,  from  those  of  a  few  months  previous. 
Now,  the  population  and  troops  at  the  place  just  men- 

*  Lorraine  to  Lernoult,  July  18,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 
t  Appendix  to  our  narrative,   Note  CXXVII. 
t  At  Kaskaskia. 
§  At  Cahokia. 

||  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  I,  p.  324;    also 
Appendix  to  our  narrative,  CXXXI. 


472       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

tioned  were  all  Americans  at  heart.  Now,  the  weather 
was  warm  and  the  streams  were  low.  There  was  now 
a  plentiful  supply  of  provisions  taken  along  by  Major 
Bowman,  for  the  march  (including  cattle  on  foot), 
let  the  time  be  procrastinated  as  it  might.  And  instead 
of  the  many  weary  days  of  the  preceding  February 
journey,  four  days  now  were  enough  for  Clark,  well- 
mounted  as  he  was,  to  reach  the  Wabash  town.* 

Upon  Clark's  arrival  at  Vincennes  (the  first  of 
July),  instead  of  there  being  in  the  place  two  or  three 
hundred  Kentuckians  that  he  was  promised,  he  found 
only  about  thirty  volunteers.  Their  meeting  with 
(what  was  looked  upon  as)  a  repulse  from  the  Shawa- 
nese  had  discouraged  the  Kentuckians  generally  ;f  and 
it  was  not  in  the  power  of  the  Commander,  Colonel 
Bowman,  to  march  them  as  militia  to  join  Clark. f 

In  after  years,  Clark  wrote :  "Instead  of  three 
hundred  men  from  Kentucky,  there  appeared  about 
thirty  volunteers,  commanded  by  Captain  McGary." 

The  American  commander  had,  under  his  imme 
diate  orders  at  Vincennes,  about  three  hundred  and 

*  Appendix,  Note  CXXVIII.  ~ 

t  See  History  of  the  Girtys,  p.  96. 

%  "Arriving  there  [at  Vincennes]  in  July,  1779,  he  [Clark] 
found  only  thirty  from  Kentucky  of  the  three  hundred  prom 
ised  him.  There  were  no  tidings  of  recruits  from  Virginia ; 
and  Major  Bowman,  his  trusty  companion  in  former  cam 
paigns  was  fighting  the  Shawanese  on  the  Ohio  at  a  disad 
vantage."  (Dr.  William  Frederick  Poole,  in  Winsor's  Nar 
rative  and  Critical  History  of  America,  vol.  VI,  p.  730.) 
Major  Joseph  Bowman  is  here  confounded  with  Col.  John 
Bowman,  lieutenant  of  Kentucky  county.  And  the  latter  did 
not  fight  "the  Shawanese  on  the  Ohio/  but  a  good  many 
miles  north  of  that  river  —  not  far  from  the  present  Xenia, 
Ohio. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       473 

fifty  men.  A  council  of  war  was  called,  and  all  his 
officers  except  two  voted  to  go  on  with  the  expedition. 
But  Clark,  after  mature  consideration,  decided  not  to 
undertake  the  campaign.  The  small  number  of  troops 
would  not  justify  an  undertaking  of  such  magnitude, 
although  the  chiefs  of  several  Indian  tribes  solicited 
the  privilege  of  taking  part  with  their  warriors  in  the 
enterprise  —  the  result  of  the  effective  work  done  by 
Linclot,  who  had  previously  reached  Vincennes  and  of 
the  stirring  and  fearless  "speech"  sent  among  the  vari 
ous  nations  by  the  Colonel.* 

Clark  readily  found  an  excuse  to  his  officers  for 
his  course.  "I  pretended  it  was  on  account  of  General 
Sullivan's  marching  on  Niagara  (of  which  we  had  just 
heard)  that  stopped  us —  that  there  was  no  doubt  of 
his  success.  Detroit  would  fall,  of  course,  and  conse 
quently  it  was  not  worth  our  while  marching  against 
it ;  although  I  knew,  at  the  same  time,  Detroit  would 
not  fall  with  Niagara,  as  they  had  an  easy  communica 
tion  with  Montreal  through  another  channel  by  way 
of  Grand  [Ottawa]  river."f 

The  resolve  of  Colonel  Clark  to  rendezvous  at 
Vincennes  preparatory  to  marching  against  Detroit, 

*  Exactly  what  Indian  chiefs  were  anxious  to  join  Clark 
is  not  known :  but,  of  the  Wabash  tribes  there  was  undoubt 
edly  a  portion  of  one — the  Miami  Indians,  of  Eel  river  — 
which  did  not  ask  the  privilege ;  as  they  took  a  neutral  atti 
tude  towards  the  belligerents.  (History  of  the  Girtys,  p.  107.) 

f  Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
pp.  86,  87.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CXXIX.) 
As  a  matter  of  fact  General  Sullivan  did  not  march  "on 
Niagara,"  but  against  Indians  of  the  Six  Nations,  particu 
larly  the  Senecas.  (Washington-Irvine  Correspondence,  p. 
110  n.) 


474       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

should  circumstances  permit,  seems  to  have  been  an 
"open  secret"  at  Kaskaskia,  for,  not  later  than  the 
twentieth  of  May,  the  news  was  on  its  way  to  Detroit 
and  Michilimickinac. 

It  was  not  a  surprise  to  Captain  Lernoult.  It  had 
all  along  been  if  not  really  anticipated  by  him,  at  least 
judged  not  to  be  impossible.  He  was  prepared  not 
only  for  this  emergency  but  for  a  movement  against 
his  post  from  Pittsburg, —  to  the  extent  (in  either 
event)  not  only  of  having  received  the  reinforcement 
of  two  hundred  regulars  for  his  garrison  but  of  having 
made  considerable  progress  on  his  new  fort.  Whether, 
in  case  of  an  attack,  he  would  abandon  the  old  fort  — 
he  would  let  circumstances  determine.  However,  in 
the  end  he  found  that,  in  all  probability,  he  would  not 
be  compelled  to  decide  the  question, —  having  received 
what  seemed  to  be  reliable  information  that  Clark  had 
abandoned  the  proposed  expedition ;  still,  it  was  the 
close  of  September  before  he  ceased  his  watchful  care, 
having,  as  he  says,  "filled  up  my  magazines  in  the  new 
fort  that  we  may  not  be  taken  unawares  should  the 
enemy  advance  this  way,  which  they  probably  may  to 
burn  and  destroy  the  grain  belonging  to  the  [Indian] 
nations."*  The  new  fortification  received  the  name  of 
"Fort  Lernoult." 

Naturally,  the  Captain  had  not  at  this  juncture 
slackened  his  efforts  in  repressing  "rebels"  in  Detroit. 
Depositions  and  declarations  of  those  loyal  to  Britain 
were  taken  implicating  some  who  had  indiscreetly  ex 
pressed  themselves  as  being  in  sympathy  with  the 

*  History  of  the  Girtys,  pp.  109,  110.    Lernoult  to  Bolton, 
Sept.  25,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       475 

Americans,  and  informing  against  at  least  one  other 
who  was  giving  aid  to  Colonel  Clark.*  And  he  soon 
received  from  the  Commander-in-Chief  additional  au 
thority  to  act  at  once  when  an  invasion  was  imminent 
—  for  the  good  of  his  Majesty's  service  and  for  the 
protection  of  trade  and  of  his  Majesty's  loyal  subjects 
and  their  effects.  That  this  might  be  accomplished,  he 
was  empowered  to  hold  general  courts  martial  for  the 
punishing  of  all  offenders  and  transgressors  of  all  de 
scriptions  and  degrees  whatever,  according  to  the  na 
ture  of  their  offenses,  as  they  should  appear  upon  trial 
before  the  same.  He  had  power  to  put  in  execution 
all  seritences  pronounced  by  the  court  even  to  the 
"pains  of  death."  But  he  must  first  declare  martial 
law  on  the  approach  of  an  enemy  to  attack  Detroit  or 
any  of  its  dependencies,  before  exercising  such  power 
over  the  lives  of  persons. f 

It  was  about  the  first  of  July  that  the  news  reached 
De  Peyster  concerning  the  movement  intended  by  the 
Americans  from  Kaskaskia.  "Having  received  intelli 
gence,"  he  wrote  to  Haldimand  on  the  ninth,  "that  an 
attack  is  intended  against  Detroit  by  the  rebels  from 
the  Illinois,  who  are  to  march  by  the  Wabash  and  St. 
Joseph,  I  have  detached  Lieutenant  [Thomas]  Ben 
nett  with  some  traders  and  canoemen,  twenty  soldiers 
and  two  hundred  Indians  to  endeavor  to  intercept  one 
Linclot,  who  is  to  march  with  a  body  of  horse  by  St. 
Joseph."  In  another  letter  of  the  same  date,  he  said : 
"On  the  29th  of  June  I  acquainted  your  Excellency 
that  I  was  sending  off  a  party  towards  the  Pee  [Peo- 

*  Depositions  of  H.  lago,  John  Latighton,  William  Miller, 
John  Cornwall,  John  Higgins,  William  Humphreys  —  all  taken 
in  July  and  August,  1779.  — -  Haldimand  MSS. 

•f  Brehm  to  Lernoult,  July  29,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 


476       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

ria].  Since  then  I  have  received  information  from  St. 
Joseph  [which  they  (the  people  there)  had  from  the 
Illinois  so  late  as  the  twenty-eighth  of  May],  that  the 
rebels  were  in  great  forwardness  to  march  with  seven 
hundred  men  to  the  Wabash  against  Detroit  and  that 
one  Linclot  is  to  march  four  hundred  horse  by  St. 
Joseph."* 

"In  consequence  of  this  intelligence,"  added  De 
Peyster,  "I  have  detached  Lieutenant  Bennett  who 
went  off  the  next  day  with  twenty  soldiers  and  about 
sixty  traders  and  canoe  Indians  to  endeavor  to  inter 
cept  Linclot  [by  marching  first  to  St.  Joseph,  then  to 
Chicago  and  crossing  to  the  Illinois]  or  attempt  any 
thing  in  that  quarter  which  may  be  conducive  to  dis 
tress  the  rebels.  The  numbers  of  the  Indians  will 
daily  increase.  Allowing  the  whole  of  this  report  to 
be  false,  the  movement  will  answer  a  good  purpose,  as 
it  will  secure  the  wavering  Indians,  particularly  the 
Pottawattamies,  keep  up  the  spirit  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Detroit  settlement,  and  greatly  deter  the  rebels  from 
any  attempt  that  way,  seeing  they  are  much  disturbed 
in  thinking  that  the  Indians  would  remain  neuter  and 
let  them  pass.  I  have  purchased  the  Welcome  [of  John 
Askin]  and  will  let  her  stay  [at  the  River  St.  Joseph] 
with  provisions  and  some  goods  to  enable  Mr.  Bennett 
to  speak  to  the  Pottawattamies,  Mascoutins,  Kicka- 
poos,  and  Miamis." 

De  Peyster  had  already  (on  the  first  of  July)  is 
sued  instructions  to  Langlade  at  "the  Bay"  to  do  his 
utmost  to  raise  the  Winnebagos  and  Milwaukee  In 
dians,  also  others  living  on  the  borders  of  Lake  Michi- 

*  It  will  be  noticed  that  the  reports  received  by  De  Peyster 
concerning  Clark  and  his  movements  were  in  general  exag 
gerated,  especially  as  to  the  number  of  the  Colonel's  men. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       477 

gan,  and  with  them  hurry  and  join  Lieutenant  Bennett 
at  Chicago,  and  in  case  the  latter  had  "passed  forward, 
to  follow  him  in  forced  marches,  overtake  him  before 
his  arrival,  and  to  travel  with  him  for  the  good  of  the 
service,  in  accordance  with  the  orders"  which  he  (the 
Lieutenant)  had  received  from  the  Michilimackinac 
commandant. 

On  the  twenty-first  of  the  month  De  Peyster  com 
plained  to  the  Commander-in-Chief  that  no  vessel  since 
the  opening  of  navigation  had  been  sent  from  Detroit 
to  his  post.  "I  once  sent  the  sloop  Welcome  thither, 
and  she  returned ;  since  which,  I  am  obliged  to  em 
ploy  her  on  Lake  Michigan.  It  would  be  necessary 
for  the  good  of  the  service  (if  your  Excellency  thought 
proper)  to  order  a  vessel  to  ply  constantly  between  the 
two  places,  in  the  situation  we  are  in  at  present.  The 
Indians  are  in  constant  alarm,  and  are  often  so  much 
persuaded  that  Detroit  is  taken  that  they  are  ready  to 
leave  their  habitations  —  so  much  are  they  exposed  to 
the  impositions  of  designing  people,  which  I  have  not 
in  my  power  to  contradict  for  want  of  more  frequent 
intelligence.  The  commanding  officer  at  Detroit  gives 
me  all  the  intelligence  he  receives ;  but,  to  hear  often, 
that  all  is  well,  would  be  most  esential  service  in  the 
management  of  the  Indians." 

The  destination  of  Lieutenant  Bennett  under  or 
ders  from  De  Peyster,  was,  St.  Joseph,  as  just  inti 
mated,  where  he  was  to  assemble  the  Pottawattamies 
of  that  vicinity.  He  arrived  out  on  the  twenty-third 
of  July,  and  threw  up  an  entrenchment  sufficient  to 
oppose  a  superior  number  of  savages,  in  case  their  in 
tentions  were  found  to  be  hostile  to  British  interests. 
But  the  Pottawattamies  who  were  first  seen  were  found 


478       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

submissive  and  he  sent  out  parties  to  endeavor  to  get 
some  intelligence  of  the  enemy  and  if  possible  to  bring 
in  some  prisoners,  or  to  distress  the  "rebels"  in  any 
manner  they  might  think  could  be  most  easily  accom 
plished.  He  also  dispatched  an  express  to  Captain 
Lernoult  at  Detroit  informing  him  of  the  disposition 
of  the  savages  (at  least  as  it  appeared  to  the  Lieu 
tenant)  and  begged  to  know  if  he  could  render  him 
any  service,  either  with  his  own  party  or  in  conjunc 
tion  with  any  other  the  Captain  might  send  to  join 
him  from  his  post. 

It  was  perhaps  well  that  Lieutenant  Bennett  took 
the  precaution  to  throw  up  a  fortification  at  St.  Joseph, 
for  he  soon  wrote  his  superior  officer  a  discouraging 
letter.  "In  my  last,"  said  he,  "I  informed  you  what 
fine  speeches  the  Pottawattamies  made  me.  Two  days 
afterwards,  a  chief  called  the  Petit  Bled,  from  Nipi- 
cous,  came  at  the  head  of  the  different  bands  of  the 
Pottawattamies  and  told  me  what  was  said  before  his 
arrival  was  without  any  other  design  than  mere  com 
pliment  ;  but  he  was  now  come  to  give  his  pure  senti 
ments  ;  that  they  returned  the  detested  hatchet  and  pipe 
which  were  brought  here  only  to  render  their  village 
miserable ;  he  said  they  desired  tranquility  but  still  in 
sisted  that  he  held  sacred  the  hatchet  of  his  former 
father,  the  French  King,  and  would  never  quit  it.  As 
soon  as  he  returned  to  his  village,  the  others  came  and 
made  an  apology  for  their  insolence.  I  gave  them  an 
answer  such  as  I  thought  they  deserved."* 

Langlade  reached  St.  Joseph  with  only  sixty  sav 
ages  —  Chippewas ;  and  Lieutenant  Bennett  soon 

*  Lieut.  Bennett  to  Major  De  Peyster,  from  St.  Joseph, 
Aug.  9,  1779.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      479 

found  that  no  dependence  could  be  placed  on  the  Ot- 
tawas,  as,  upon  their  leaving  Arbre  Croche  they  were 
determined  to  go  no  further  than  St.  Joseph ;  also,  that 
the  Pottawattamies  were  much  disaffected.  "Our 
scouts,"  he  wrote  to  De  Peyster,  "have  all  been  fright 
ened  back  by  Indian  reports.  They  seem  all  to  be  de 
bauched  by  the  thoughts  of  a  French  war.  We  have 
not  twenty  Indians  in  our  camp  who  are  not  preparing 
to  leave  us.  .  .  Mr.  Beaubien,  an  officer  in  Capt. 
Lernoult's  department  at  the  Miamis,  has  joined  us  to 
offer  his  service.  He  says  there  are  not  fifty  rebels  at 
Vincennes.  .  .  "As  we  have  no  account  of  an 
enemy  near  us  unless  treacherous  Indians,  I  would 
immediately  return  to  Michilimackinac  did  I  not  think 
myself  obliged  to  wait  Capt.  Lernoult's  answer  whether 
he  wants  us  at  or  near  Detroit.  I  have  deceived  him 
much  with  respect  to  our  numbers.  I  thought  I  could 
depend  more  upon  the  Ottawas ;  however,  I  have  the 
pleasure  to  tell  you  that  French  and  English  are  all 
well  in  spirits,  and  only  wait  for  an  order  to  march."* 
Lieutenant  Bennett  finally,  without  hearing  from 
Captain  Lernoult  at  Detroit,  concluded  to  return  to 
Michilimackinac,  which  he  reached  the  last  of  August, 
assuring  De  Peyster,  upon  his  arrival,  that  the  Cana 
dians  behaved  with  the  greatest  appearance  of  zeal  for 
the  service  possible  and  seemed  greatly  disappointed 
at  not  having  it  in  their  power  to  distinguish  them 
selves  ;  —  "also  of  the  soldiers  who  were  of  the  party," 
said  he,  "I  flatter  myself  I  need  not  inform  you  of 
their  eagerness  to  meet  the  enemy."f 

*Id. 

t  Lieut.  Bennett's  Report  —  Haldimand  MSS. 


480       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"I  have  accounts,"  wrote  De  Peyster  to  General 
Haldimand  on  the  ninth  of  August,  "that  Clark  is  on 
the  march  to  Wea  with  five  hundred  men  followed  by 
two  hundred  oxen,  the  remainder  of  his  provisions  to 
go  up  the  Ohio  and  Wabash.  Linctot  marches  with  a 
party  from  the  Pay  [Peoria],  to  join  him  at  Wea  or 
Miamis.  Their  object  is  said  to  be  Detroit.  I  believe 
by  this  time  we  have  five  hundred  Indians  on  the  look 
out  to  harrass  them  on  their  march  and  endeavor  to 
draw  them  into  an  ambuscade,  which  I  have  ordered 
to  be  laid  for  them." 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  De  Peyster  had  received 
an  exaggerated  account  of  the  marching  of  Major 
Bowman  to  Vincennes  with  the  principal  part  of 
Clark's  force ;  and  it  is  also  to  be  noted,  that,  had 
Clark  actually  marched  from  that  place  towards  De 
troit,  he  would  doubtless  have  encountered  much  oppo 
sition  from  the  savages  on  the  way,  notwithstanding 
the  friendly  attitude  of  the  Illinois  river  Indians  toward 
him  and  of  those  of  the  Upper  Wabash  —  thanks  to 
the  zeal  and  courage  of  Linclot. 

It  was  not  long  after  De  Peyster  had  written  the 
letter  just  mentioned  to  the  Commander-in-Chief  be 
fore  he  became  convinced  that  Clark's  intended  expedi 
tion  against  Detroit  had,  some  time  before,  been  aban 
doned. 

The  attachment  previously  of  the  Indians  for  the 
French,  the  pains  taken  by  the  latter  to  renew  it,  the 
apprehensions  that  the  savages  who  were  professed 
allies  had  in  contemplation  to  desert  the  British  inter 
ests,  the  unfortunate  miscarriage  of  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  Hamilton  against  the  Illinois,  and  the  defection 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       48] 

of  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  Detroit,  —  had  all  im 
pressed  themselves  strongly  upon  General  Haldimand's 
mind  as  events  portending  evil  for  his  cause  in  the 
West.  He  could  plainly  see  that  the  causes  mentioned 
had  strongly  served  to  alienate  the  affections  of  the 
Indians ;  and  notwithstanding  "they  continue  to  pro 
fess  their  attachment  to  the  King,  they  frame  excuses 
for  not  going  to  war,  and  discover  upon  all  occasions 
an  indifference  which  indicates  their  intention  to  for 
sake  us :" —  such  were  his  words  to  Lord  George  Ger 
main. 

And  the  General  added:  "From  every  informa 
tion  that  has  been  received,  it  would  appear  that  an 
expedition  against  Detroit  is  certainly  intended  under 
the  command  of  a  Colonel  Clark  who  retook  Vin- 
cennes.  I  have  reinforced  Detroit;  and  the  forward 
ness  of  a  most  useful  work  now  erecting  there  will,  I 
hope,  insure  the  safety  of  that  place,  unless  the  rebels 
should  find  means  to  make  their  way  to  it  in  great 
force ;  which,  the  growing  slackness  of  the  Western 
nations  may  perhaps  enable  them  to  effect."* 

It  was  a  great  relief  to  the  British  Commander-in- 
Chief  to  learn,  finally,  that  "a  Colonel  Clark"  had  given 
up  his  plan  of  attacking  Detroit. 

At  the  time  when  Clark  had  resolved  to  relin 
quish,  for  the  time,  all  attempts  against  Detroit,  the 
Piankeshaw  Indians,  to  show  their  esteem  for  him, 
urged  him  to  accept  a  gift  of  land  two  and  one-half 
leagues  square  in  some  portion  of  their  territory.  The 
Colonel  having  previously  refused  any  such  present  as 
being  contrary  to  the  Virginia  constitution,  now 

*  Haldimand  to   Germain,   Sept.   13th  and   14th,   1779.  — 
Haldimand  MSS. 
31 


482       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

thought  it  would  be  politic  to  accept  the  offer ;  so,  on 
the  sixteenth  of  June,  the  Tobacco's  son,  on  behalf  of 
all  the  Piankeshaws,  executed  a  deed  to  Clark  for  the 
amount  before  mentioned,  lying  on  the  right  bank  of 
the  Ohio,  at  the  Falls,  Clark  suspecting  that  he  might 
find  it  necessary  to  fortify  there  "for  the  convenience 
of  free  intercourse."* 

It  was  now  the  opinion  of  Clark  that  the  interests 
of  the  service  required  him  to  spend  a  few  months  at 
the  Falls  of  the  Ohio, —  hoping  upon  his  arrival  there 
to  be  able  to  raise  a  sufficient  force  to  punish  the  Shaw- 
anese  in  a  more  signal  manner  than  had  been  done  by 
Colonel  Bowman.  Having  a  number  of  supernumer 
ary  officers,  he  sent  them  into  the  settlements  of  Ken 
tucky  county  to  recruit  for  his  battalion,  at  the  same 
time  giving  proper  instructions  for  the  direction  of 
the  commands  of  the  different  posts. 

Lieutenant  Colonel  Montgomery  was  to  go  to  the 
Illinois.  Under  him  was  placed  the  company  of  Cap 
tain  John  Williams ;  which  force,  when  joined  by  Cap 
tain  Worthington's  company,  was  to  occupy  Fort 
Clark,  at  Kaskaskia ;  —  Captain  Lieutenant  Harrison, 
then  at  that  post,  was  to  have  charge  of  the  artillery. 
Montgomery  was  also  to  take  with  him  Captain  Mc- 
Carty's  command,  which,  after  being  reinforced  by 
Captain  Quirk's  company,  was  to  be  stationed  at  Ca- 
hokia.  The  garrison  at  Fort  Patrick  Henry  (Vin- 
cennes)  was  to  be  composed  of  Captain  Shelby's  and 
Captain  Robert  Todd's  commands,  to  be  joined  by  the 
companies  of  Captains  Taylor  and  Keller.  Captains 
Williams,  McCarty,  Todd  and  Shelby  were  to  com 
mand  their  respective  forces  when  augmented  as  stated. 

*  Appendix,  Note  CXXX, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       483 

Major  Joseph  Bowman  was  to  proceed  with  the 
recruiting  parties.  Under  him,  upon  that  service, 
were  the  supernumerary  captains  —  Quirk,  Evans, 
Taylor,  Worthington  and  Keller.  Captain  Robert 
George  and  Lieutenant  Robertson,  with  their  artillery 
company,  were  to  go  with  Clark  to  the  Falls,  where 
"Headquarters"  were  to  be  established.  Captain  Helm 
was  made  Indian  agent  for  Fort  Patrick  Henry  and 
the  Department  of  the  Wabash. 

Godefroy  Linctot  was  directed  to  act  as  Agent 
of  the  Illinois  river  Indians  and  other  western  and 
northwestern  tribes ;  and  Antoine  Gamelin,  of  the 
Weas.  Linctot  was  to  report  to  Montgomery ;  and 
Gamelin,  although  in  Helm's  Department,  to  "Head 
quarters"  at  the  Falls,  or  to  Kaskaskia. 

"Captain  Linctot  will  appoint,"  so  ran  the  order, 
"an  assistant  for  the  upper  part  of  the  Mississippi,  in 
the  Indian  Department,  near  the  Dogs  plains  [now 
Prairie  du  Chien,  Wisconsin],  provided  the  appoint 
ment  be  approved  of  by  Colonel  Montgomery,  or  the 
commanding  officer  for  the  time  being."  These  orders 
were  promulgated  on  the  fifth  of  August.* 

"The  body  of  the  battalion,"  afterward  wrote 
Montgomery,  "marched  back  to  the  Mississippi  to  gar- 

*  Appendix,  Note  CXXXI,  where  this  last  General  Order 
of  Clark  issued  on  his  Illinois  expedition  is  given  in  full. 
On  the  25th  of  Sept.,  1779,  Capt.  George  at  the  Falls  of  the 
Ohio  wrote  to  Col.  Daniel  Brodhead  at  Fort  Pitt:  "Col. 
Clark  has  divided  the  men  under  my  command  into  detach 
ments,  which  he  has  stationed  at  sundry  places,  so  that  there 
is  not  at  this  time  above  ten  or  twelve  with  me  at  this 
place  ....  Since  my  arrival  in  this  country  I  have  ac 
cepted  a  commission  under  the  State  of  Virginia  and  conclude 
myself  more  immediately  under  Col.  Clark's  orders." 


484       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

rison  the  towns  of  Kaskaskia  and  Cohokia.  Colonel 
Clark  finding  the  public  interest  required  that  he 
should  reside  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  until  provision 
should  be  made  for  the  ensuing  campaign,  I  was  or 
dered  to  take  command  of  the  troops  in  the  Illinois ; 
to  make,  often,  reports  of  the  condition  of  that  De 
partment  to  the  Colonel ;  and  to  be  careful  to  have  ex 
penses  of  Government  as  moderate  as  possible,  draw 
ing  bills  of  exchange  on  him  or  the  treasury  of  Vir 
ginia  for  the  payment  of  the  expenses  of  the  troops, 
studying  the  general  interest  of  the  State,  and  tran- 
quility  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  different  posts,  letting 
all  kind  of  oppression  be  the  last  shift.  This  is  the 
substance  of  the  orders  I  received."* 

"At  Vincennes,  on  the  fifth  of  August,  1779,"  sub 
sequently  wrote  Clark,  "the  Western  troops  were  as 
signed  to  different  posts  agreeable  to  a  general  order. 
Lieutenant  Colonel  Montgomery  was  authorized  by 
me  to  draw  bills  of  exchange  on  myself  or  the  treas 
urer  of  the  State  of  Virginia,  for  defraying  the  neces 
sary  expenses  of  the  troops  in  the  Department,  but  not 
on  any  other  person. "f 

When  everything  at  Vincennes  had  been  satisfac 
torily  arranged,  the  American  commander  "set  out  for 
the  Falls,"  where  he  arrived  on  the  twentieth  of  Au 
gust  ;  issuing  his  orders  thereafter  from  "Headquar 
ters,"  as  "Colonel  of  the  Illinois  Battalion,  and  Com- 

*  Montgomery  to  B'd.  Com'rs.  of  Western  Accts,  Feb. 
22,  1783. —  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  Ill,  p.  441. 
Montgomery  left  Vincennes  for  Kaskaskia  on  the  14th  of 
August. 

t  Clark  to  Colonel  William  Fleming,  February  6,  1783. 
(Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  Ill,  p.  433.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       485 

mander-in-Chief  of  the  Virginia  Forces  in  the  West 
ern  Department."* 

After  an  absence  of  nearly  fourteen  months,  he 
now  saw,  upon  the  Kentucky  shore,  instead  of  a  wil 
derness,  as  when  he  left  the  island,  a  considerable  set 
tlement.  The  "post"  previously  ordered  by  him  to  be 
removed  "to  the  main  land,"  he  found  was  a  well- 
built  but  small  fort,  with  which  he  was  much  pleased. f 

Previous  to  the  establishing  of  his  headquarters 
on  the  Ohio,  Clark  was  voted  a  sword  by  the  General 
Assembly  of  Virginia  as  a  proof  of  their  appreciation 
of  his  "great  and  good  conduct  and  gallant  behavior." 
It  was  purchased  by  the  Governor  "of  a  gentleman 
who  had  used  it  but  little  and  judged  it  to  be  elegant 
arid  costly."  In  transmitting  it  to  the  Colonel  (it  was 
sent  in  care  of  a  Captain  of  the  militia)  the  Lieutenant 
Governor,  John  Page,  wrote  him  a  kind  —  almost 
affectionate  —  letter  dated  the  fourth  of  September, 
congratulating  him  on  his  successes  and  wishing  him 
a  continuation  of  them.  The  sword  was  received  by 
Clark  at  the  Falls  and  was  highly  appreciated.^ 

Clark  expended  during  the  time  he  was  actually 
engaged  in  the  conquest  of  the  Illinois  and  Wabash 
towns  of  cash  received  from  the  treasurer  of  Virginia 
and  from  Oliver  Pollock,  the  State's  financial  agent 
(and  the  United  States'  as  well)  in  New  Orleans,  over 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars, —  nearly  one  half  being 
provided  and  sent  to  the  Colonel  by  the  last  mentioned, 
who,  because  of  his  trouble  and  responsibility  in  so 
doing  and  for  his  activity  and  zeal  in  promoting  the 

*  Appendix,  Note  CXXXII. 
t  Same,  Note,  CXXXIII. 
t  Same,  Note  CXXXIV. 


486       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

interests  of  the  country  generally,  is  entitled  to  have 
his  name  enrolled  high  on  the  list  of  those  the  nation 
delights  to  honor.  His  genuine  patriotism  (for  such 
it  was)  contributed  greatly  towards  making  the  expe 
dition  a  complete  and  permanent  success-* 

The  grant  made  on  the  sixteenth  day  of  June, 
1779,  by  ''Francis,  son  of  Tobacco"  to  Clark,  of  two 
and  a  half  leagues  of  land  lying  on  the  right  bank  of 
the  Ohio  opposite  the  Falls,  being  in  contravention  of 
the  constitution  of  Virginia  formed  in  May,  1776,  was 
of  course  void  as  soon  as  made.  But,  the  instrument 
of  writing  drawn  up  on  the  third  of  January,  1778, 
by  Wythe,  Mason  and  Jefferson,  wherein  they  prom 
ised  to  use  their  influence  to  obtain  a  liberal  bounty 
for  each  one  joining  Clark,  in  case  of  the  success  of 
the  Illinois  expedition,  was,  it  may  be  premised,  more 
than  fulfilled  as  Virginia  extended  her  liberality  not 
only  to  the  privates,  but  to  Clark  himself  and  to  his 
officers,  in  a  marked  degree,  by  granting,  in  its  act 
of  the  second  of  January,  1781,  to  them  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  acres  of  land,  to  be  laid  off  on  the 
northern  borders  of  the  Ohio  adjacent  to  the  Falls. f 

And  this  grant  was,  on  the  first  day  of  March, 
1784,  confirmed,  so  far  as  Virginia  was  concerned,  by 
its  deed  of  cession  to  the  United  States  of  all  right, 
title  and  claim  to  the  country  northwest  of  the  Ohio. 

This  action  was  taken  because  by  an  act  of  the 
second  of  January,  1781,  the  General  Assembly  of  Vir 
ginia  had  resolved  that,  on  certain  conditions,  they 

*  See  Magazine  of  American  History,  vol.  XII,  pp.  415, 
410;  and  Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  I,  pp.  603-605.  (Ap 
pendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CXXXIV.) 

t  Appendix,  Note  CXXXV. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       487 

would  cede  to  Congress,  for  the  benefit  of  the  United 
States,  all  the  right,  title  and  claim  which  Virginia 
had  to  the  territory  northwest  of  the  river  Ohio.  Con 
gress,  by  an  act  of  the  thirteenth  of  September,  1783, 
agreed  to  accept  the  cession  of  the  territory ;  and  the 
General  Assembly  of  Virginia,  on  the  twentieth  of  De 
cember,  thereafter,  passed  an  act  authorizing  their  del 
egates  in  Congress  to  convey  the  same  to  the  General 
Government. 

The  deed  was  duly  executed  wherein  was  a  con 
dition  that  "a  quantity  not  exceeding  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  acres  of  land,  promised  by  Virginia, 
shall  be  allowed  and  granted  to  the  then  Colonel,  now 
General  George  Rogers  Clark,  and  to  the  officers  and 
soldiers  of  his  regiment,  who  marched  with  him  when 
the  posts  of  Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes  were  reduced, 
and  to  the  officers  and  soldiers  that  have  been  since 
incorporated  into  the  said  regiment,  to  be  laid  off  in 
one  tract,  the  length  of  which  not  to  exceed  double  the 
breadth,  in  such  place  on  the  northwest  side  of  the 
Ohio  as  a  majority  of  the  officers  shall  choose  and  to  be 
afterward  divided  among  the  officers  and  soldiers  in 
due  proportion,  according  to  the  laws  of  Virginia." 

Now,  by  provisions  of  the  acts  of  the  General  As 
sembly  of  Virginia,  of  the  third  of  October,  1779,  and 
of  the  fifth  of  October,  1780,  Clark  and  his  officers  and 
men  were  entitled  to  receive  as  follows : 

Brigadier-General   10,000        acres 

Colonel    6,666  2/3    " 

Lieutenant-Colonel    6,000 

Major  5,666  2/3     " 

Captain    4,000 

Subaltern    2,666  2/3     " 

Non-commissioned  officer 400 

Soldier  (private)   200  " 


490       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

on  the  left  (east)  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  about  five 
miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio.  He  named  it 
"Fort  Jefferson"  in  honor  of  the  Virginia  governor. 

Hearing  of  the  approach  of  a  considerable  British 
and  Indian  force  against  Cahokia  and  St.  Louis,  Clark 
hastened  with  a  party  to  the  relief  of  the  former 
place,  reaching  there  in  time  to  repel  the  enemy. 
Learning  then  that  an  army  from  Detroit  was  march 
ing  to  invade  Kentucky,  he  returned  hastily  to  Fort 
Jefferson,  marching  thence  to  Louisville  with  what 
men  could  be  spared  from  his  post ;  but  he  arrived 
there  too  late  to  prevent  the  reduction  of  two  interior 
stations  and  the  securing  by  the  enemy  under  Captain 
Henry  Bird  of  a  considerable  number  of  prisoners.* 
Thereupon,  he  gathered  about  a  thousand  men,  in 
vaded  the  Shawanese  country  north  of  the  Ohio,  de 
feating  the  Indians  and  laying  waste  two  of  their 
villages.  This  was  early  in  August.f 

Before  the  close  of  the  year  Clark's  attention 
was  again  directed  against  Detroit.  Going  to  the  Vir 
ginia  capital,  he  arranged  with  the  Virginia  Governor 

*  For  an  account  of  Bird's  invasion  of  Kentucky,  see 
History  of  the  Girtys,  pp.  118-120.  Butler  (History  of  Ken 
tucky,  pp.  115,  116),  gives  currency  to  the  absurd  tradition 
that  Clark,  on  his  way  to  Louisville,  had  but  two  companions ; 
and  that  all  three  "painted  themselves  like  Indians."  His 
account  has  been  extensively  copied.  (See  History  of  the 
Girtys,  p.  121.)  "The  apprehension  of  a  large  body  of  the 
enemy  in  motion  from  Detroit  towards  the  Falls  of  the 
Ohio,  has  called  him  [Clark]  there  [from  Fort  Jefferson] 
with  what  men  he  could  well  spare  from  this  country,  before 
he  had  well  breathed  after  the  fatigues  of  an  expedition  up 
the  Mississippi."  (John  Dodge  to  Gov.  Jefferson  from  Fort 
Jefferson,  Aug.  1,  1780  —  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers, 
vol.  1,  p.  368.)  The  italicising  is  mine. 

f  History  of  the  Girtys,  pp.  121,  122,  406. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      491 

and  his  Council  for  the  undertaking,  which  met  the 
approval  of  Washington ;  but  before  anything  could 
be  accomplished,  Arnold's  invasion  of  Virginia,  in 
January,  1781,  occurred,  when  Clark  temporarily 
headed  two  hundred  and  forty  riflemen  and  ambus 
caded  a  party  of  the  enemy  on  James  river.  He  then 
(having  been  commissioned  the  twenty-second  of  the 
month  just  mentioned  a  Brigadier  General)  made 
strenuous  efforts  to  carry  forward  the  Detroit  expe 
dition;  but  because  of  the  defeat  of  a  portion  of  his 
force  under  Colonel  Archibald  Lochrey  while  on  its 
way  down  the  Ohio  to  join  him  on  that  river,  and  of 
the  passage  of  an  act  by  Virginia,  authorizing  the 
Governor  to  stop  the  expedition,  the  General  was  com 
pelled  to  abandon  the  undertaking  after  reaching 
Louisville.  This  was  in  September.* 

For  the  residue  of  the  year  1781,  after  the  aban 
donment  of  the  expedition  against  Detroit,  there  was 
nothing  of  particular  note  accomplished  by  Clark  be 
yond  watching  and  guarding  the  Kentucky  settle 
ments.  But  in  the  Spring  of  1782,  he  was  busying 
himself  at  the  Falls  in  the  erection  of  a  new  fortifi 
cation  and  later  in  building  an  armed  boat  to  ply  on 
the  river.  His  new  and  "formidable  fortress"  was 
named  "Fort  Nelson." 

*  Washington-Irvine  Correspondence,  pp.  53-56,  76,  77, 
83,  154,  229-231.  History  of  the  Girtys,  pp.  129-131.  "From 
this  time  forth,"  says  Lewis  Collins  (Historical  Sketches  of 
Kentucky,  p.  — ),  "his  [Clark's]  influence  sensibly  decreased, 
and  the  innate  force  and  energy  of  his  character  languished 
and  degenerated."  It  is  not  to  be  presumed,  however,  that 
the  failure  of  this  expedition  was  the  only  cause  for  this,  if, 
indeed,  it  was  the  principal  one.  Concerning  his  loss  of  pres 
tige,  more  will  be  said  hereafter. 


490       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

on  the  left  (east)  bank  of  the  Mississippi,  about  five 
miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio.  He  named  it 
"Fort  Jefferson"  in  honor  of  the  Virginia  governor. 

Hearing  of  the  approach  of  a  considerable  British 
and  Indian  force  against  Cahokia  and  St.  Louis,  Clark 
hastened  with  a  party  to  the  relief  of  the  former 
place,  reaching  there  in  time  to  repel  the  enemy. 
Learning  then  that  an  army  from  Detroit  was  march 
ing  to  invade  Kentucky,  he  returned  hastily  to  Fort 
Jefferson,  marching  thence  to  Louisville  with  what 
men  could  be  spared  from  his  post;  but  he  arrived 
there  too  late  to  prevent  the  reduction  of  two  interior 
stations  and  the  securing  by  the  enemy  under  Captain 
Henry  Bird  of  a  considerable  number  of  prisoners.* 
Thereupon,  he  gathered  about  a  thousand  men,  in 
vaded  the  Shawanese  country  north  of  the  Ohio,  de 
feating  the  Indians  and  laying  waste  two  of  their 
villages.  This  was  early  in  August,  f 

Before  the  close  of  the  year  Clark's  attention 
was  again  directed  against  Detroit.  Going  to  the  Vir 
ginia  capital,  he  arranged  with  the  Virginia  Governor 

*  For  an  account  of  Bird's  invasion  of  Kentucky,  see 
History  of  the  Girtys,  pp.  118-120.  Butler  (History  of  Ken 
tucky,  pp.  115,  116),  gives  currency  to  the  absurd  tradition 
that  Clark,  on  his  way  to  Louisville,  had  but  two  companions ; 
and  that  all  three  "painted  themselves  like  Indians."  His 
account  has  been  extensively  copied.  (See  History  of  the 
Girtys,  p.  121.)  "The  apprehension  of  a  large  body  of  the 
enemy  in  motion  from  Detroit  towards  the  Falls  of  the 
Ohio,  has  called  him  [Clark]  there  [from  Fort  Jefferson] 
with  what  men  he  could  well  spare  from  this  country,  before 
he  had  well  breathed  after  the  fatigues  of  an  expedition  up 
the  Mississippi."  (John  Dodge  to  Gov.  Jefferson  from  Fort 
Jefferson,  Aug.  1,  1780  —  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers, 
vol.  1,  p.  368.)  The  italicising  is  mine. 

f  History  of  the  Girtys,  pp.  121,  122,  406. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      491 

and  his  Council  for  the  undertaking,  which  met  the 
approval  of  Washington ;  but  before  anything  could 
be  accomplished,  Arnold's  invasion  of  Virginia,  in 
January,  1781,  occurred,  when  Clark  temporarily 
headed  two  hundred  and  forty  riflemen  and  ambus 
caded  a  party  of  the  enemy  on  James  river.  He  then 
(having  been  commissioned  the  twenty-second  of  the 
month  just  mentioned  a  Brigadier  General)  made 
strenuous  efforts  to  carry  forward  the  Detroit  expe 
dition  ;  but  because  of  the  defeat  of  a  portion  of  his 
force  under  Colonel  Archibald  Lochrey  while  on  its 
way  down  the  Ohio  to  join  him  on  that  river,  and  of 
the  passage  of  an  act  by  Virginia,  authorizing  the 
Governor  to  stop  the  expedition,  the  General  was  com 
pelled  to  abandon  the  undertaking  after  reaching 
Louisville.  This  was  in  September.* 

For  the  residue  of  the  year  1781,  after  the  aban 
donment  of  the  expedition  against  Detroit,  there  was 
nothing  of  particular  note  accomplished  by  Clark  be 
yond  watching  and  guarding  the  Kentucky  settle 
ments.  But  in  the  Spring  of  1782,  he  was  busying 
himself  at  the  Falls  in  the  erection  of  a  new  fortifi 
cation  and  later  in  building  an  armed  boat  to  ply  on 
the  river.  His  new  and  "formidable  fortress"  was 
named  "Fort  Nelson." 

*  Washington-Irvine  Correspondence,  pp.  53-56,  76,  77, 
83,  154,  229-231.  History  of  the  Girtys,  pp.  129-131.  ''From 
this  time  forth,"  says  Lewis  Collins  (Historical  Sketches  of 
Kentucky,  p.  — ),  "his  [Clark's]  influence  sensibly  decreased, 
and  the  innate  force  and  energy  of  his  character  languished 
and  degenerated."  It  is  not  to  be  presumed,  however,  that 
the  failure  of  this  expedition  was  the  only  cause  for  this,  if, 
indeed,  it  was  the  principal  one.  Concerning  his  loss  of  pres 
tige,  more  will  be  said  hereafter. 


492       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

In  August,  Captain  William  Caldwell  with  Rangers 
and  Indians  gained  a  signal  victory  over  the  Ken- 
tuckians  at  the  Blue  Licks,  but  Clark  was  not  in 
command  of  the  latter.  This  success  of  the  enemy 
induced  the  General,  as  a  counter  stroke,  again  to  lead 
a  considerable  force  —  over  a  thousand  men  —  across 
the  Ohio.  He  attacked,  in  November,  the  savages  on 
the  Great  Miami  and  destroyed  their  villages  and 
means  of  subsistence.*  This  was  his  last  important 
military  service  during  the  Revolution.  He  had 
already  become  tired  of  his  command  and  had  solicited 
the  Virginia  governor  to  be  recalled. f  But  it  was 
not  because  the  northwestward  Indians  (except  the 
Piankeshaws  and  those  near  the  settlements  on  the 
Mississippi)  had  wholly  engaged  in  the  war  against 
the  Americans, :(:  nor  was  it  because  of  the  desperate 
straits  of  Virginia  in  a  financial  way,  causing  him  to 
dispose  of  some  lands  he  was  possessed  of  to  obtain 
stores  for  his  soldiers  at  Louisville.§  He  had,  as  he 
believed,  other  reasons ;  and  he  would  in  the  early 
spring,  go  over  the  mountains  to  confer  with  the  Gov 
ernor  ;  'but  it  was  his  intention  to  return,  notwith 
standing,  to  Louisville,  to  reside  there. 

The  Governor  gave  General  Clark  liberty  to  re 
linquish  his  command  in  the  West,  and  the  latter  early 
in  the  Spring  wrote  Harrison  thanking  him  for  the 

*  Washington-Irvine  Correspondence,  p.  401. 

t  Clark  to  Gov.  Harrison,  Oct.  22,  1782 :  Calendar  of 
Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  II T,  p  351.  Same  to  same,  Nov. 
27,  1782,  in  the  same  vol.,  p.  38J. 

J  Same  to  same,  Oct.  18,  same  year  :  Calendar  of  Virginia 
State  Papers,  vol.  Ill,  p.  345  (whete  ("lark's  initials  are  not 
given,  but  the  letter  ",S\  '  appears  ?.n  their  place). 

§  Same  to  same,  Nov.  3<>,  same  year  (see  the  work  last 
cited,  vol.  Ill,  p.  386). 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       493 

permit,  at  the  same  time  giving  him  his  reasons  for 
the  request  he  had  made,  which  he  declares  were  not 
because  of  the  smallness  of  his  command,  but  quite  a 
different  cause.  Every  exertion  in  his  power  had  been 
made  for  many  years  for  the  defense  of  his  Depart 
ment  he  declared.  Knowing  that  the  safety  of  the 
frontier  down  the  Ohio  and  upon  the  Mississippi  and 
Wabash  depended  upon  his  activity,  he  says  he  took 
pleasure  in  encountering  the  greatest  fatigues,  leaving 
nothing  in  his  power  undone,  either  by  dividing  the 
councils  of  the  Indians  by  taking  necessary  steps  to 
keep  large  numbers  in  American  interests,  or  by  mak 
ing  necessary  excursions  into  their  country  to  distress 
the  enemy  and  cause  the  friendly-disposed  to  remain 
so.  He  spoke  of  a  clan  of  partisans  who  resided  in 
Philadelphia  ("pretended  proprietors,"  as  he  calls 
them),  who  were  endeavoring  to  divide  the  counsels 
of  the  people  in  the  Kentucky  settlements  and  to  de 
stroy  their  interest  at  the  seat  of  the  Virginia  gov 
ernment,  "more  effectually  to  complete  their  disaffec 
tion  to  the  State."  The  General  really  believed  their 
efforts  were  in  an  especial  manner  directed  against 
him,  whose  desire  above  all  things  was  to  save  the 
country,  but  which,  if  the  war  continued,  he  would 
be  unable  to  effect  because  of  their  machinations.  He 
wished  "to  be  clear"  of  their  evil  designs ;  so  he 
would  leave  the  West.* 

In  the  first  half  of  May,  the  General  had  reached 
Richmond,  then  the  Virginia  seat  of  Government; 

*  Clark  to  Gov.  Harrison  of  Va.,  March  8,  1783,  from 
Lincoln  county,  Kentucky  —  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Pa 
pers,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  453,  454.  (See  Appendix  to  our  narrative, 
Note  CXXXVIII.) 


494       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

but,   from  the  following  letter,  it  is  evident  he  was 
distressed  for  necessaries: 

"RICHMOND,  May  21st,  1783. 

"SiR:  Nothing  but  necessity  could  induce  me  to  make 
the  following  request  of  your  Excellency,  which  is,  to  grant 
me  a  small  sum  of  money  on  account.  I  can  assure  you,  Sir, 
that  I  am  exceedingly  distressed  for  the  want  of  necessary 
clothing,  etc.,  and  don't  know  of  any  channel  through  which 
I  could  procure  any  except  that  of  the  Executive.  The  State, 
I  believe,  will  fall  considerable  in  my  debt.  Any  supplies 
that  your  Excellency  favors  me  with  might  be  deducted  out 
of  my  accounts.  I  have  the  honor  to  be  your  Excellency's 
obedient  servant, 

G.  R.  CLARK. 

"His   Excellency   Governor   Harrison."* 

The  next  day  Clark  gave  to  Governor  Harrison, 
at  his  request,  a  "plan  of  such  offensive  measures" 
as  he  believed  the  general  interest  required  to  be  put 
in  execution  that  season  against  the  Indians. f  How 
ever,  the  preliminary  articles  of  peace  had  been  signed 
between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  and  the 
latter  power  had  made  fair  promises  to  call  in  her 
savage  allies  and  restrain  them  from  farther  hostilities 
against  the  Americans. 

We  now  come  to  the  last  act  of  Clark  in  a  public 
way  while  yet  a  Brigadier  General.  A  meeting  was 
held  in  Richmond  on  the  twenty-seventh  day  of  May, 
1783,  of  a  number  of  State  officers,  "for  the  purpose 
of  endeavoring  to  get  proper  means  adopted  for  locat 
ing,  alloting  and  surveying  their  lands :  to  have  their 
certificates  put  upon  proper  footing,  and  measures 
taken  to  give  them  a  sufficient  credit ;  and  to  have 
their  claim  to  half-pay  finally  determined  by  the  As- 

*  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  Ill,  p.  487. 
tld.,  pp.  488-490. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       495 

sembly."  General  Clark  acted  as  president  of  the  meet 
ing.  Resolutions  were  passed  that  a  memorial  be 
presented  to  the  Assembly  requesting  that  officers  and 
soldiers  of  the  State  Line  and  Navy  be  put  on  the 
same  footing  with  the  officers  and  soldiers  of  the  Vir 
ginia  Continental  Line,  with  respect  to  land,  bounties, 
etc. ;  and  stating  that,  in  lieu  of  their  half-pay  for 
life,  they  preferred  to  receive  full  pay  for  five  years 
only.  Clark  and  seven  other  (officers)  were  ap 
pointed  to  draw  up  the  memorial. 

The  General  (together  with  a  like  number  of 
officers  as  last  mentioned)  was  also  appointed  to 
superintend  the  surveyors  employed  to  survey  the 
lands,  in  conjunction  with  the  officers  appointed  by 
the  Continental  Line  for  that  purpose,  and  to  see 
that  the  regiments  and  corps  that  had  served  "in  the 
westward"  were  duly  provided  for,  as  all  other  troops, 
in  the  memorial  to  be  prepared  for  the  General  As 
sembly. 

The  officers  appointed  to  draw  up  the  memorial 
presented  it  according  to  order,  which  having  been 
signed  by  the  president,  was  on  the  next  day  given  to 
the  Assembly.* 

Clark  had  not  sent  in  his  resignation  even  after 
remaining  in  Richmond  over  two  months ;  however, 
nothing  in  his  instructions  to  the  officer  left  in  com 
mand  at  Fort  Nelson,  or  in  letters  to  the  County 
Lieutenants  of  the  counties  of  Jefferson  and  Lincoln^ 
Kentucky,  indicated  his  intention  of  returning  to  his 

*  See  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  Ill,  pp. 
492,  493.  It  will  be  noticed  that,  by  Clark's  appointment 
as  one  of  the  committee  to  superintend  the  surveyors  em 
ployed  to  survey  the  lands  which  had  been  granted  them  in 
the  West,  he  intended  to  return  to  Kentucky, 


496       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

command  and  again  assuming  the  direction  of  mili 
tary  affairs  in  the  West.  And  now  the  State  of  Vir 
ginia,  for  reasons  set  forth  in  a  communication  to 
him  from  its  Governor,  had  no  longer  a  desire  to 
continue  him  in  office: 

"!N  COUNCIL,  July  2d,  1783. 

"SiR :  The  conclusion  of  the  war,  and  the  distressed  situ 
ation  of  the  State  with  respect  to  its  finances,  call  on  us  to 
adopt  the  most  prudent  economy.  It  is  for  this  reason 
alone  I  have  come  to  a  determination  to  give  over  all 
thoughts  for  the  present  of  carrying  on  an  offensive  war 
against  the  Indians,  which  you  will  easily  perceive  will 
render  the  services  of  a  general  officer  in  that  quarter  un 
necessary  ;  and  [you]  will  therefore  consider  yourself  as 
out  of  command ;  but  before  I  take  leave  of  you,  I  feel 
myself  called  upon  in  the  most  forcible  manner  to  return  you 
my  thanks  and  those  of  my  Council,  for  the  very  great  and 
singular  services  you  have  rendered  your  country  in  wrest 
ing  GO  great  and  valuable  a  territory  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
British  enemy,  repelling  the  attacks  of  their  savage  allies,  and 
carrying  on  successful  war,  in  the  heart  of  their  country.  This 
tribute  of  praise  and  thanks  so  justly  due,  I  am  happy  to 
communicate  to  you  as  the  united  voice  of  the  Executive.  I 
am,  with  respect,  Sir,  yours,  etc., 

"BENJAMIN  HARRISON."* 

But  Clark,  although  no  longer  in  the  service  of  his 
State,  lost  none  of  his  interest  in  affairs  down  the 
Ohio.  On  the  twelfth  of  October,  before  returning  to 
the  Falls  (Louisville),  he  wrote  Governor  Harrison: 

"SiR:  I  have  been  informed  that  your  Excellency  hath 
lately  received  despatches  from  the  Westward.  Being  anxious 
to  know  the  success  of  the  Commission  to  the  Chickasaws  in 
duces  me  to  take  the  liberty  of  writing  to  you,  hoping  that 
some  moments  of  leisure  might  offer,  and  that  your  Excel- 

*  This  letter  of  dismissal  has  been  several  times  pub 
lished.  Concerning  Virginia's  subsequent  treatment  of  Clark, 
see  Appendix  to  our  narrative,  Note  CXXXIX. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       497 

lency  would  honor  me  with  the  information.  From  report,  I 
fear  all  is  not  well  in  that  quarter.  I  hope,  Sir,  that  you 
will  pardon  this  intrusion;  and  [I]  beg  leave  to  subscribe 
myself  your  Excellency's  humble  servant."* 

After  Clark  had  become  a  private  citizen,  the 
General  Assembly  of  his  state  recognized  the  fact  of 
his  signal  services,  by  the  passage,  in  October,  1783, 
of  an  act  laying  off  a  town  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
Ohio  from  Louisville,  naming  it  "Clarksville,"  and 
constituting  him  one  of  its  trustees. 

Clark's  return  in  the  latter  half  of  the  year  last 
mentioned  to  the  West  brought  with  it  no  particular 
demonstration  on  the  part  of  the  citizens  of  Kentucky, 
and  he  soon  engaged  at  the  Falls  in  private  business.f 
But  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  honored  him 
with  an  appointment  as  "commissioner  plenipoten 
tiary,"  along  with  two  others,  to  hold  a  treaty  with 
the  Ohio  Indians.  As  a  result,  "the  treaty  of  Fort 
Mclntosh"  was  concluded  January  21,  1785,  between 
"George  Rogers  Clark,  Richard  Butler  and  Arthur 
Lee,"  of  the  one  part,  and  the  sachems  and  warriors 
of  the  Wyandot,  Delaware,  Chippewa  and  Ottawa  na 
tions,  of  the  other. 

Virginia,  by  her  deed  of  cession  of  her  claims  to 
the  territory  northwest  of  the  Ohio  in  March,  1784, 
to  the  United  States,  and  the  acceptance  by  the  Gen 
eral  Government  of  the  same,  confirmed  the  grant  of 
lands  previously  made  to  Clark  and  the  soldiers  who 
were  in  the  service  under  him ;  yet,  as  it  may  be 
premised,  this  did  not  result  for  a  long  time  to  their 

*  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  Ill,  p.  535. 

f  At  least  one  of  the  employments  he  made  arrangements 
to  engage  in,  was  that  of  purveyor  of  "buffalo  beef,  bear's 
meat,  deer  hams  and  bear  oil,"  for  the  denizens  of  Louisville. 

32 


498       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

advantage  for  the  reason  that  the  hostile  savages 
beyond  the  Ohio  prevented  surveys  being  made.* 

The  year  1786  found  Clark  still  engaged  on  behalf 
of  the  General  Government  as  Commissioner  to  en 
deavor  to  bring  the  savages  beyond  the  Ohio  into 
proper  relations  with  the  United  States ;  and  another 
treaty  was  conducted,  —  this  time  between  "George 
Rogers  Clark,  Richard  Butler,  and  Samuel  H.  Par 
sons  for  the  United  States,"  with  the  Shawanese  In 
dians,  January  31,  the  year  last  mentioned,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Great  Miami  river,  where  a  fortifica 
tion  was  erected  for  that  purpose,  called  Fort  Finney.f 

After  the  return  of  Clark  from  Fort  Finney  to 
Louisville,  much  of  his  time  for  some  months  was 
given  up  to  a  voluntary  consideration  of  public  af 
fairs  because  of  the  alarming  increase  of  Indian  hos 
tilities.  The  presence  of  imminent  danger  changed  to 
a  considerable  extent  the  feeling  of  the  Kentucky 
people  who  had  harbored  prejudice  against  him;$  for 
yet  fresh  in  their  minds  were  his  success  over  the 
savages  beyond  the  Ohio ;  and  they  were  now  inclined 
to  look  to  him  again  for  advice  and  aid,  as  they 
saw  he  was  in  favor  of  marching  against  the  Indians 
—  particularly  those  upon  the  Wabash. 

Benjamin  Logan,  County  Lieutenant  of  Lincoln 
county,  Kentucky,  wrote  the  Virginia  governor  on  the 
nineteenth  of  April,  giving  an  account  of  recent  Indian 

*  Appendix,  Note  CXL. 

f  Memoirs  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania, 
vol.  VII :  Military  Journal  of  Major  Ebenezer  Denny,  p.  263. 

J  One  of  their  complaints  had  been  that  Clark,  as  Com 
missioner,  was  trifling  with  the  savages  when  the  latter  were 
really  plundering  the  settlers ;  but,  of  course,  there  was  no 
truth  in  the  accusation. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      499 

marauds  —  adding,  that  he  thought  it  his  duty  to  in 
form  the  Governor  of  the  circumstances  and  that 
General  Clark  was  in  the  county  of  Jefferson,  and  had 
recovered  from  a  low  state  of  health,  and  was  "likely 
to  be  able  to  serve  the  public."* 

"I  make  no  doubt,"  wrote  Clark,  in  May,  from 
Louisville  to  Governor  Henry,  "you  have  long  since 
had  a  full  account  of  the  late  Indian  treaties  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Miami.  .  .  .  What  future  effect 
they  may  have  on  the  nations  treated  with  it  is  im 
possible  to  tell ;  but  some  good  consequences  hav£ 
already  appeared  in  the  peaceable  behavior  of  some 
of  those  Indians.  Notwithstanding,  I  do  not  think 
that  this  country  [Kentucky],  even  in  its  infant  state, 
bore  so  gloomy  an  aspect  as  it  does  at  present.  The 
loss  of  Colonel  Christian  (whom  the  inhabitants  had 
great  future  hopes  in)  hath  caused  general  uneasiness; 
[and  we  can]  add  to  this  the  certainty  of  a  war  already 
commenced,  and  early  this  Spring  declared,  by  the 
Wabash  Indians  in  general,  amounting  in  the  whole 
to  upwards  of  fifteen  hundred  warriors,  encouraged 
by  the  British  traders  from  Detroit,  and  their  own  in 
clination. 

"When  you  take  a  view  of  our  situation,"  con 
tinued  Clark,  "circumstanced  as  we  are  —  no  prospect 
of  support,  at  best  for  several  months ;  so  formid 
able  and  bloody  an  enemy  to  encounter;  much  irreg 
ularity  in  the  [Kentucky]  country;  no  power  to 
order  the  militia  out  of  the  State  for  its  protection; 
[because  of  these  things]  ....  I  doubt  [not 
a]  great  part  of  these  beautiful  settlements  will  be  laid 
to  waste  if  they  are  not  protected  by  volunteers  pen- 

*  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  IV,  p.  120. 


500       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

etrating  into  the  heart  of  the  enemy's  country.  Noth 
ing  else  will  do.  Scouts  and  forts  on  the  frontiers 
answer  but  little  purpose,  and  in  the  end  cost  more 
than  an  army  that  would  do  the  business  effectually 
at  once. 

"Were  a  sufficient  force  to  appear  in  their  coun 
try  after  a  general  action  which  I  think  should  take 
place,  they  would  sue  for  peace,  and  agree  to  any 
terms  you  pleased  [to  make]  to  save  their  country 
from  total  destruction.  Such  an  example  would  have 
a  great  and  good  impression  on  those  Indians  already 
treated  with,  as  fear  would  cause  them  to  be  peace 
able,  when  presents  make  them  believe  we  are  afraid 
of  them,  and  [are]  rather  an  encouragement  for  them 
to  make  war  upon  us  when  they  get  poor.  This  is  a 
notorious  truth  well  known  by  those  that  are  ac 
quainted  with  their  dispositions."* 

But  Clark's  letter  was  not  received  until  after  the 
Executive  Council  of  Virginia  had  taken  action  for 
the  better  protection  of  Kentucky.  On  the  fifteenth 
of  the  same  month  in  which  Clark  wrote,  the  Board 
determined  that  Governor  Henry  should  direct  the 
field  officers  of  the  Kentucky  militia  to  assemble  and 
take  the  necessary  measures  for  the  protection  of  the 
settlements  (that  it  would,  when  so  assembled,  take  the 
advice  of  Clark  and  order  an  expedition  against  the 
Indians,  was  a  foregone  conclusion).  The  Governor 
prepared  instructions  in  accordance  with  orders  re 
ceived  from  the  Executive  Council  and  sent  them  at 
once  to  the  County  Lieutenants  of  Kentucky. 

*  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  IV,  p.  122. 
Col.  Wm.  Christian,  spoken  of  by  Clark,  was  killed  by  the 
Indians  about  the  middle  of  April  previous  (see  the  vol.  just 
cited,  p.  119). 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       501 

On  the  twelfth  of  July,  Levi  Todd,  County  Lieu 
tenant  of  Fayette  County,  wrote  Governor  Henry 
acknowledging  receipt  of  instructions.  The  field  of 
ficers  would  have  a  meeting  at  Harrodsburg  on  the 
second  day  of  August.  There  would  be  an  expedi 
tion  determined  upon  against  the  Wabash  and  White 
River  Indians ;  but  Todd  adds  : 

"  Tis  hard  to  say  where  we  have  the  greatest 
number  of  enemies.  Within  this  three  weeks  past,  the 
whole  of  the  north  and  west  frontier  of  the  District 
[of  Kentucky]  has  been  struck  by  small  parties  [of 
savages].  Much  mischief  has  been  done  in  different 
parts  of  the  District  this  summer  and  much  property 
lost.  I  conceive  that  all  our  neighboring  Indians  are 
just  now  commencing  war  avowedly.  Much  Kentucky 
blood  will  be  spilt,  though  I  hope  that  vigorous  oper 
ations  the  ensuing  fall  will  make  much  in  our  favor. 
The  Wabash  Indians  have  repeatedly  said  that  the 
Kentucky  people  dare  not  march  to  the  Wabash.  Our 
patience  hitherto  has  much  encouraged  and  increased 
the  number  of  our  enemies.  Necessity  compels  us 
now  to  pursue  a  different  conduct.  I  fear  it  will  be 
difficult  to  get  ammunition  in  time.  Provisions,  I 
believe,  may  be  procured.  There  is  plenty  in  the  Dis 
trict.  .  .  .  I  am  of  opinion  it  would  have  been 
very  agreeable  to  the  District  had  General  Clark  been 
commissioned  a  General  Officer  for  the  present  oc 
casion."* 

"The  Americans  living  there  [at  Vincennes]," 
wrote  John  May  to  Governor  Henry,  on  the  four 
teenth  of  July,  "have  been  very  much  distressed  by 
the  Indians  ever  since  last  winter,  and  have  every 

*  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  IV,  p.  155. 


502       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

reason  to  believe  that  they  [the  savages]  were  en 
couraged  to  continue  their  hostilities  by  the  French 
inhabitants,  who  have  not  only  refused  the  Ameri 
cans  any  assistance,  but  would  not  suffer  them  to 
make  use  of  the  cannon  which  were  left  there  for 
their  defense  at  a  fort  which  they  were  obliged  to 
build ;  and  when  they,  the  French,  were  written  to 
on  the  subject  by  General  Clark,  they  returned  for 
answer  that  they  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  United 
States,  but  considered  themselves  as  British  subjects 
and  should  obey  no  other  power.  I  understand  there 
are  British  traders  amongst  them,  who  keep  up  this 
idea ;  and  as  Congress  seems  to  have  totally  neg 
lected  them,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  if  they  should 
still  think  themselves  under  the  British  government, 
especially  when  they  see  that  the  several  British  posts, 
which  they  were  told  were  to  be  delivered  up  to  the 
Americans,  are  still  in  the  possession  of  the  British. 

"The  Americans  were  very  lately  attacked  by  the 
Indians,  but  they  repulsed  them,  whereupon  Colonel 
Legras  .  .  .  issued  his  proclamation  ordering  all 
Americans  to  move  away.  They  are  now  closely  con 
fined  within  their  fort  or  houses  and  have  every 
reason  to  expect  the  French  will  assist  the  Indians 
against  them,  and  are  under  the  most  dreadful  appre 
hensions  of  being  totally  cut  off. 

'The  Wabash  Indians  and  most  of  the  Shawa- 
nese  are  all  at  war  with  us  and  put  to  death  in 
a  most  cruel  manner  all  the  prisoners  who  are,  so 
unfortunate  as  to  fall  into  their  hands.  .  .  ., 
There  are  now  letters  here  [in  Lincoln  county,  Ken 
tucky]  from  Vincennes  requesting  in  the  most  mov 
ing  terms,  that  assistance  may  be  sent  the  Americans 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       503 

to  enable  them  to  move  away,  and  offering  to  give 
up  every  shilling's  worth  of  property  they  possess  in 
order  to  defray  the  expenses  of  moving  them.  There 
had  a  party  of  militia  amounting  to  about  one  hun 
dred  and  thirty  men  marched  a  few  days  before 
this  intelligence  came  to  hand  to  attack  a  party  of 
Indians  who  were  encamped  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Ohio,  some  distance  below  the  Falls ;  but,  upon  Gen 
eral  Clark's  receiving  the  letter,  he  sent  expresses  after 
them  and  requested  them  to  proceed  immediately  to 
the  post  [Vincennes]. 

'This  country  had  determined  to  carry  on  a  vol 
unteer  campaign  against  the  Indians  in  August  next, 
but  your  instructions  have  changed  the  plan,  and  they 
are  now  preparing  for  a  regular  campaign.  I  find 
that  it  is  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  inhabitants 
of  this  country  that  General  Clark  is  the  properest 
person  to  take  the  command  here,  and  (notwith 
standing  the  opinion  which  prevails  below  of  his  not 
being  capable  of  attending  to  business)  I  am  of  the 
same  opinion  with  the  rest  of  the  country.  I  have 
been  with  him  frequently  and  find  him  as  capable 
of  business  as  ever,  and  should  an  expedition  be  car 
ried  against  the  Indians  I  think  his  name  alone  would 
be  worth  half  a  regiment  of  men.  .  .  .  Colonel 
Logan,  is  acquainted  with  the  contents  of  this  letter 
and  has  authorized  me  to  say  that  in  case  a  general 
officer  should  be  appointed,  he  thinks  General  Clark's 
abilities  and '  experience  entitle  him  to  the  appoint 
ment."* 

*  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  IV,  pp.  156, 
157.  Concerning  what  is  meant  in  this  letter  by  Clark  "not 
being  capable  of  attending  to  business"  as  believed  by  some 
people,  will  presently  more  fully  appear. 


504       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Already,  however,  had  it  been  determined  by  the 
general  voice  of  the  people,  that  Clark  (though  with 
out  any  commission  in  the  militia),  was  to  lead  a 
strong  force  into  the  Indian  country.* 

On  the  tenth  of  August,  Lieutenant  Colonel  Josiah 
Harmar  wrote  from  Fort  Harmar,  mouth  of  the  Mus- 
kingum  river,  that  one  of  his  officers  had  arrived 
from  the  Miami  (Fort  Finney)  and  had  brought  in 
telligence  that  "an  expedition  was  forming  under  the 
command  of  General  Clark,  and  authorized  by  the 
State  of  Virginia,  to  attack  the  Indians. "f  But  the 
authority  spoken  of  was,  in  reality,  confined  to 
measures  for  protection  of  the  frontier,  and  there 
was  no  power  granted  (nor  could  there  be)  by  the 
Executive  of  the  State  to  compel  the  militia  to  march 
across  the  Ohio,  which  now  was  the  border  line. 
However,  an  opinion  by  the  Attorney  General  and 
Supreme  Judges  of  the  District  of  Kentucky  that  the 
Executive  of  Virginia  had  delegated  all  their  power 
under  the  law  and  Articles  of  Confederation,  so  far  as 
they  related  to  invasion,  insurrections,  and  impress 
ments,  to  the  field  officers  of  the  District,  and  that 
these  officers  in  consequence  thereof  had  a  right  to 
impress,  if  necessary,  all  supplies  for  the  use  of  the 
militia  that  might  be  called  into  service  by  their  order 
or  orders  under  the  order  of  Council^  —  was  con 
strued  to  authorize  an  expedition  into  the  Indian 
country.  Therefore,  "in  consequence  of  the  instruc 
tions  from  your  Excellency  and  the  advice  of  Coun- 

*  Compare  Denny's  Journal,  p.  293. 

t  See  the  same  vol.,  p.  490. 

1;  Opinion  of  the  Attorney  General  and  Supreme  Judges 
of  the  District  of  Kentucky.  This  may  be  found  printed  in 
Dunn's  Indiana,  p.  171. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       505 

cil,  of  the  1 6th  of  May/'  wrote  Todd  to  the  Gov 
ernor  of  Virginia,  on  the  twenty-ninth  of  August, 
"the  field  officers  assembled  from  every  county  and 
a  great  majority  of  the  whole,  in  the  District.  We 
unanimously  resolved  that  an  expedition  against  the 
Wabash  and  other  inimical  Indians  in  that  quarter 
was,  at  this  time,  justifiable  and  necessary.  . 
General  Clark  was  appointed  to  command  the  army, 
which  is  to  rendezvous  at  Clarksville  on  the  loth  of 
September.  We  expect  our  number  will  be  between 
1,500  and  2,000.  A  great  part  of  the  necessary  sup 
plies  is  given  up  to  the  officers  by  consent  [that  is, 
voluntarily  by  the  people]  with  expectation  of  being 
paid  by  government ;  and  some  [is]  procured  by 
impressment."* 

About  one  thousand  men  under  Clark  marched 
from  Clarksville  for  Vincennes  and  reached  the 
vicinity  of  that  place  early  in  October,  where  for  nine 
days  they  waited  the  arrival  of  provisions  and  stores 
which  had  been  shipped  on  keelboats  from  Louisville 
and  Clarksville.  About  one  half  the  provisions  was 
spoiled  when  the  boats  arrived  and  what  had  been 
moved  by  land  was  almost  exhausted.  The  troops 
were  ordered  to  move  up  the  Wabash  (they  having 
been  reinforced  by  a  considerable  number  of  the  in 
habitants  of  Vincennes)  to  attack  the  Indian  towns 
on  that  river.  On  reaching  the  neighborhood  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Vermillion  river,  Clark  found  that  the 
villages  of  the  savages  on  that  river  were  deserted. 

At  this  crisis,  when  the  spirits  of  the  officers  and 
men  were  depressed  by  disappointment,  hunger  and 
fatigue,  some  persons  circulated  throughout  the  camp 

*  Levi  Todd  to  Gov.  Henry,  from  Fayette  county  — 
Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  IV,  p.  166. 


506       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

a  rumor  that  General  Clark  had  sent  a  flag  of  truce 
to  the  Indians,  with  the  offer  of  peace  or  war.  This 
report,  combined  with  a  lamentable  change  which 
had  taken  place  in  the  once  temperate,  bold,  energetic, 
and  commanding  character  of  Clark,  excited  among 
the  troops  a  spirit  of  insubordination  which  neither 
the  commands,  nor  the  entreaties,  nor  the  tears  of  the 
General  could  subdue.  Three  hundred  of  his  men 
in  a  body  left  the  army  and  marched  homeward. 
Clark  then  returned  with  the  remainder  to  Vincennes.* 

"Never  had  General  Clark  led  so  unfortunate  a 
party  [as  that  of  1786,  against  the  savages  of  the 
Wabash,]"  writes  one  of  Kentucky's  historians; 
"hitherto  victory  seemed  to  have  hung  with  delight 
upon  his  banner ;  and  for  him  to  appear  was  to 
conquer  all  opposing  difficulties.  At  the  same  time, 
mournful  as  the  truth  is,  and  reluctlantly  as  the  record 
is  wrung  from  the  author,  General  Clark  was  no  longer 
the  same  man,  as  the  conquerer  of  Kaskaskia  and  the 
captor  of  Vincennes."f  Strong  drink  had  conquered 
him.t 

Once  again  at  Vincennes,  Clark  and  his  fellow- 
officers  agreed  that  to  establish  a  garrison  there  would 
be  of  essential  service  to  Kentucky ;  and  the  Gen 
eral,  assuming  "supreme  direction,"  at  once  began 
to  carry  out  the  plan.  However,  in  the  end,  his  high 
handed  assumption  of  what  was  really  a  doubtful 
authority  —  his  seizure  of  Spanish  property  in  Vin 
cennes,  his  attempts  to  hold  Indian  treaties  without 
the  direction  of  Congress,  and  other  aggressions  — 
frustrated  the  design,  the  Virginia  Council  disavow- 

*  Dillon's  Indiana   (ed.  of  1859),  pp.  185,   186. 

t  Mann  Butler :    History  of  Kentucky,  pp.  152,  153. 

|  But  of  this  more  will  presently  be  said. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       507 

ing  all  his  acts  and  the  United  States  ordering  the 
commanding  officer  of  the  troops  of  the  General 
Government  on  the  Ohio  to  effectually  put  a  stop  to 
the  movement.  This  was  in  the  spring  of  1787. 

The  failure  of  Clark  in  his  expedition  against  the 
Wabash  Indians  and  the  course  pursued  by  him  in  en 
deavoring  to  found  a  military  post  at  Vincennes, 
proved  a  blow  to  his  influence  from  which  he  never 
recovered. 

On  the  seventh  of  March,  1791,  "when  Indian 
hostilities  were  spreading  terror  through  the  West, 
and  the  authorities  were  casting  about  for  a  satis 
factory  commander  for  the  frontier  troops,"  Jefferson 
wrote  to  Innis  of  Kentucky :  "Will  it  not  be  possi 
ble  for  you  to  bring  General  Clark  forward?  I  know 
the  greatness  of  his  mind,  and  am  the  more  mortified 
at  the  cause  which  obscures  it.  Had  not  this  un 
happily  taken  place,  there  was  nothing  he  might  not 
have  hoped :  could  it  be  surmounted,  his  lost  ground 
might  yet  be  recovered.  No  man  alive  rated  him 
higher  than  I  did,  and  would  again,  were  he  to  be 
come  again  what  I  knew  him."*  But  it  was  too  late- 
Such  was  the  mastery  intemperance  had  gained  over 
him  that  his  advancement  to  such  a  command  was 
out  of  the  question. f 

Once  again,  however,  an  effort  was  made  by  Clark 
to  engage  in  public  affairs,  but  it  was  both  discred 
itable  and  transient  —  an  attempt  on  his  part  in  favor 
of  France  against  the  Spanish  on  the  Mississippi,  when 
Genet,  the  French  minister,  undertook  to  raise  and 
organize  a  force  in  Kentucky  for  a  secret  expedition 

*  Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  Ill,  p.  218. 
f  Appendix,  Note  CXLI, 


508       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

—  Clark  accepting  in  1793  a  commission  as  Major- 
General  to  conduct  the  enterprise.  But  Genet  was 
recalled  and  Clark's  commission  annulled.  After  this, 
he  sunk  into  almost  total  obscurity,  remembered  only 
as  one  of  the  most  valorous  of  western  patriots  of 
the  Revolution. 

Clark  never  married.*  He  was  a  stout,  rather 
short,  square  man,  with  a  high  broad  forehead,  sandy 
hair,  blue  eyes,  and  heavy  shaggy  eye-brows.  His 
portrait  indicates  more  than  ordinary  intellectual 
ability. f  Though  of  quick  temper,  he  was  very  com 
panionable.  His  last  years  were  spent  all  by  himself 
in  a  rude  dwelling  on  Corn  island,  until  a  sister  took 
him  to  her  home  at  Locust  Grove  near  Louisville. 
He  was  in  infirm  health  a  long  time.  He  died  Feb 
ruary  13,  1818,  and  was  buried  in  Cave  Hill  ceme 
tery,  in  what  is  now  a  suburb  of  that  city.  Of  the 
Virginians,  who  nobly  and  unselfishly  helped,  during 
the  Revolution,  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  history  names 
with  pride  among  the  many),  Washington  and  Jef 
ferson,  Henry  and  Mason,  Harrison  and  Clark. 

*  Appendix,  Note  CXLII. 
t  Appendix,  Note  CXLIII. 


APPENDIX. 


(509) 


APPENDIX. 


NOTE  I. 
CLARK'S  VISIT  TO  -KENTUCKY  IN  1775. 

THE  year  1775  was  [is]  memorable  for  the 
arrival  of  that  most  daring  and  sagacious 
officer,  George  Rogers  Clark,  who  was  soon 
destined  to  intertwine  his  memory  with  honors," 
(Butler's  Kentucky,  pp.  35,  36).  It  is  sug 
gested  that  not  at  the  date  given  was  Clark  an  officer; 
he  held  no  office  civil  or  military  during  that  year.* 

Again,  that  writer  says  (p.  37)  :  "Early  in  1775 
Clark  visited  Kentucky  ...  In  this  visit,  he  either 
had  a  commission  of  major,  or  was,  from  his  service 
in  Dunmore's  war  and  prominent  talents,  voluntarily 
placed  at  the  head  of  the  irregular  troops  then  in  Ken 
tucky."  But  there  were  no  "irregular  troops"  then  in 
Kentucky. 

"During  this  visit  [to  Kentucky,  in  1775]  he 
[Clark]  was  temporarily  placed  in  command  of  the 
irregular  militia  of  the  settlements ;  but  whether  he 
held  a  commission  is  not  known."  [Collins's  Ken 
tucky  ed.  of  1877),  p.  133.]  Collins,  in  this,  follows 
Butler,  only  making  the  statement  more  erroneous 
by  substituting  "irregular  militia"  for  "irregular 
troops." 

*  The  spelling  of  Clark's  name  with  an  e  at  the  end,  by 
Butler,  was  undoubtedly  a  typographical  error ;  for  that 
writer  afterwards  gives,  in  most  instances,  the  correct  or 
thography. 

(511) 


512       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 
NOTE  II. 

MEMOIR. 


The  first  suggestion  of  Clark's  Memoir  published, 
was  by  Thomas  Jefferson.  In  writing  to  James  Innes, 
March  7,  1791,  concerning'  Clark,  he  said:  "We  are 
made  to  hope  he  is  engaged  in  writing  the  accounts 
of  his  expeditions  north  of  the  Ohio.  They  will  be 
valuable  morsels  of  history,  and  will  justify  to  the 
world  thbse  who  have  told  them  how  great  he  was 
[Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  Ill,  p.  218]."  From  this 
it  would  seem  that  Clark  had  intended  to  make  his 
Memoir  more  comprehensive  —  to  include  accounts  of 
all  his  "expeditions  north  of  the  Ohio"  —  than  it  was 
finally  written. 

As  to  the  exact  date  when  the  Memoir  was  com 
pleted,  there  is  no  information  extant.  If  its  heading 
be  taken  literally,  it  must  have  been  written  after 
the  fourth  of  March,  1817,  and  before  the  eighteenth 
of  February  of  the  next  year,  as  Monroe  was  inaugu 
rated  on  the  day  first  mentioned  and  Clark  died  on 
the  day  last  given.  It  is  clear,  however,  from  the 
wording,  that  the  heading  is  no  clue  to  the  period  when 
the  Memoir  was  composed.  It  is  safe  to  conclude  that 
it  was  not  written  until  near  the  close  of  the  century; 
and  there  are  circumstances  making  it  seem  probable 
that  it  was  not  finished  until  several  years  later. 

The  Memoir  was  first  used  by  Mann  Butler  in  his 
Kentucky  (in  both  editions  of  that  work).  In  the 
Preface  to  his  first  edition  (1834),  Butler  says: 

"In  the  first  place  are  the  papers  of  Gen.  George 
Rogers  Clark;  these  contain  a  memoir  by  the  great 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       513 

western  hero,  of  his  public  services,  from  1775  to 
1779.  These  periods  embrace  the  most  interesting 
epochs;  the  papers  also  include  an  interesting  cor 
respondence  with  Patrick  Henry  and  Jefferson,  the 
early  and  distinguished  governors  of  Virginia,  as  with 
many  military  officers  in  the  western  country.  These 
documents  are  now,  after  more  than  the  lapse  of  half 
a  century,  for  the  first  time  submitted  to  the  public."* 

"Butler's  words,  "after  more  than  the  lapse  of 
half  a  century,"  refer,  of  course,  to  Clark's  corres 
pondence  —  not  to  his  Memoir.  That  historian  relies 
implicitly  upon  all  the  statements  of  the  latter,  with 
one  or  two  exceptions;  but  what  is  more  objectionable 
is  his  frequent  interpolation  of  unreliable  traditions,  — 
with  the  result  that  most  of  these  have  been  taken  by 
many  subsequent  writers  of  Western  history  as  veri 
table  accounts  and  frequently  have  been  enlarged 
upon. 

The  next  to  use  the  Memoir  was  James  T.  More- 
head,  in  his  address  of  May  25,  1840,  at  Boones- 
borough.  In  the  publication  of  his  effort,  in  a  note 
appended  thereto,  Morehead  says  (p.  165)  : 

"The  life  and  campaigns  of  General  George  Rogers 
Clark  would  be  a  most  valuable  accession  to  our  West 
ern  history,  and  I  am  gratified  to  be  able  to  state  that 
the  materials  for  such  a  work  are  in  a  state  of  pre 
paration  by  L.  Bliss,  Jr.,  Esq.,  of  Louisville.  That 
gentleman  has  been  so  obliging  as  to  submit  to  my 
perusal  the  autograph  memoir  of  the  distinguished 

*  But  these  documents,  in  their  entirety,  are  by  no  means 
"submitted  to  the  public"  in  that  author's  history.  They  are 
used,  simply,  by  him  and,  in  some  instances,,  not  at  all 
judiciously. 

33 


514       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

soldier,  commencing  with  the  period  of  his  visit  to 
Kentucky  in  1776  [1775]  and  closing  with  the  year 
1777  [1779].  I  have  drawn  freely  upon  it,  although 
Mr.  Butler's  delightful  narratives  of  the  Illinois  cam 
paigns  covered  pretty  much  the  same  ground." 

Morehead  condenses  the  Memoir  into  about  a  dozen 
pages  of  his  Address,  following  the  story  without  at 
tempting  to  add  traditionary  accounts,  and  adopting  its 
errors  —  to  him  of  course  unknown. 

Dillon's  publication  of  the  Memoir,  in  his  history 
of  Indiana  (ed.  of  1843,  PP-  127-184;  of  1859,  pp. 
115-167),  is  a  literal  copy  of  most  of  it.  What  he 
leaves  not  copied,  he  generally  essays  to  supply  in  a 
condensed  manner,  in  the  nature  of  interpolations. 

The  three  publications  we  have  enumerated  are, 
it  is  believed,  sufficient  to  give  the  real  import  of 
every  statement  of  any  importance  in  this  the  labored 
recital  of  Clark ;  but  care  must  be  taken,  particularly, 
to  separate  Butler's  traditionary  accounts  from  the 
residue  of  the  narrative;  which  is  not  a  difficult  task. 

Estimates,  in  detached  sentences,  of  the  general 
character  of  Clark's  Memoir,  are  given  by  several 
late  writers.  Roosevelt  is  perhaps,  on  the  whole, 
most  severe  in  his  strictures.  In  his  The  Winning  of 
the  West,  vol.  II,  he  says : 

[r.]  "Clark  has  left  a  full  MSS.  memoir  of  the 
events  of  1777,  1778  and  1779.  It  was  used  exten 
sively  by  Mann  Butler,  .  .  .  and  is  printed  almost 
complete  by  Dillon,  on  pp.  115-167  of  his  'Indiana/ 
It  was  written  at  the  desire  of  Presidents  Jefferson 
and  Madison ;  and  therefore  some  thirty  or  forty  years 
after  the  events  of  which  it  speaks.  Valuable  though 
it  is,  ,  ,  .  it  would  be  still  more  valuable  had  it 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       515 

been  written  earlier;  it  undoubtedly  contains  some 
rather  serious  errors  [p.  36n]." 

[2.]  "The  'Memoir/  written  by  an  old  man  who 
had  squandered  his  energies  and  sunk  into  deserved 
obscurity,  is  tedious  and  magniloquent,  and  sometimes 
inaccurate  [p.  55n]." 

[3.]  "The  account  written  by  Clark  [that  is,  his 
'Memoir']  in  his  old  age,  like  Shelby's  similar  auto 
biography,  is,  in  many  respects,  not  very  trustworthy. 
It  cannot  be  accepted  for  a  moment  where  it  conflicts 
with  any  contemporary  accounts  [p.  57n]." 

[4..]  "When  Clark  wrote  his  memoirs,  in  his  old 
age,  he  took  delight  in  writing  down  among  his  ex 
ploits  all  sorts  of  childish  stratagems ;  the  marvel  is 
that  any  sane  historian  should  not  have  seen  that  these 
were  on  their  face  as  untrue  as  they  were  ridiculous- 
[p.  63n]." 

[5,]  "In  the  latter  [that  is,  in  his  Memoir],  Clark 
malTes  not  a  few  direct  misstatements,  and  many  de 
tails  are  colored  so  as  to  give  them  an  altered  aspect 
[p.  8m]." 

[6.]  "Unfortunately,  most  of  the  small  western 
historians  who  have  written  about  Clark  have  really 
damaged  his  reputation  by  the  absurd  inflation  of  their 
language.  They  were  adepts  in  the  forcible-feeble 
style  of  writing.  .  .  Moreover,  they  base  his  claims 
to  greatness  not  on  his  really  great  deeds,  but  on  the 
half-imaginary  feats  of  childish  cunning  he  related 
[in  his  Memoir]  in  his  old  age  [p.  8m]." 

Although  the  Memoir  contains  many  errors,  some 
of  which  were  without  doubt  intentionally  made,  it  is, 
nevertheless,  of  much  value  in  throwing  light  on  dark 


516       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

passages  to  be  found  in  Clark's  early  letters.  It  must, 
however,  always  be  consulted  with  care,  and  its  asser 
tions  closely  scrutinized,  to  separate  what  is  true  from 
that  which  is  erroneous.  Wherever  are  brought  for 
ward  his  own  deeds  of  valor  or  shrewdness,  there  is 
the  greater  necessity  for  a  more  careful  and  critical 
examination.  As  to  the  probable  reason  for  most  of 
the  short-comings  of  the  Memoir,  see  this  Appendix, 
Note  CLI. 


NOTE  III. 

DATE   OF   LIEUTENANT   GOVERNOR    HAMILTON'S    ARRIVAL 
AT  DETROIT. 

"In  the  month  of  April,  1775,  I  was  appointed 
Lieutenant  Governor  and  Superintendent  of  the  set 
tlement  of  Detroit  at  a  salary  of  £200.  In  the  month 
of  September  following,  Sir  Guy  Carleton  sent  me  to 
that  post  with  verbal  orders,  the  state  of  the  Province 
[of  Quebec]  at  that  time  pressing  my  departure." 
(Hamilton's  Memorial  to  the  Commissioners  of  His 
Majesty's  Treasury,  MSS.) 

.  .  .  "Immediately  on  my  arrival  here  (which 
was  on  the  Qth  of  November  last)"  .  «,  .  are  words 
used  by  him  to  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth  from  Detroit, 
August  29  to  September  2,  1776.  (Haldimand  MSS.) 

Bancroft  (History  of  the  United  States,  eel.  of 
1885,  vol.  IV,  p.  148)  is  ignorant  of  the  date  of  Hamil 
ton's  arrival.  He  speaks  of  him  as  seeking  to  influence 
the  Indians  of  the  Northwest  against  the  Colonies  as 
early  as  in  April,  1775,  —  which,  of  course,  is  error. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       517 

NOTE  IV. 
DODGE'S  INTERVIEW  WITH  THE  SAVAGES  AT  SANDUSKY. 

Dodge  says  a  party  of  savages  from  the  neighbor 
hood  of  the  lakes  came  to  his  house  on  their  way  to 
the  frontiers  to  strike  a  blow.  He  inquired  of  them 
why  they  had  taken  up  the  hatchet.  They  replied 
that  Governor  Hamilton  had  told  them  that  the  Amer 
icans  were  going  to  murder  them  all  and  take  their 
lands,  but  if  they  would  join  him  they  would  be  able 
to  drive  them  off ;  and  that  he  would  give  them  twenty 
dollars  a  scalp.  On  this,  Dodge  repeated  to  the  war 
riors  the  Continental  "talk"  held  with  the  Indians 
at  Pittsburgh  in  October  previous ;  and,  making  them 
a  small  present,  they  returned  home,  believing  as  he 
told  them,  that  the  Governor  was  a  liar  and  meant 
to  deceive  them. 

It  is  evident  that  the  Indians  practiced  upon 
Dodge's  credulity  in  their  relation,  as  an  excuse  for 
their  going  upon  the  war  path;  for  it  is  certain  that 
Hamilton  had  not  directed  them  to  take  up  the  hatchet, 
nor  had  he  offered  a  reward  for  American  scalps. 
And  here  it  may  be  said  that  it  is  not  beyond  the  bounds 
of  probability  that  Dodge  does  not  adhere  strictly  to 
the  truth  in  his  story. 


518       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

NOTE  V. 

GEORGE  MORGAN'S  EARLY  DESIGNS  AGAINST  THE  ILLI 
NOIS  HIS    LETTER    TO    WINSTON    AND 

KENNEDY    AT   THAT    PLACE. 

"LOWER  SHAWNESE  TOWN, 

"July  6th,  1776. 
"GENTLEMEN, 

"This  is  all  the  paper  I  have  left  and  this  country  affords 
no  more,  therefore  I  cannot  write  so  fully  as  I  wish. 

"The  bearer,  Silver  Heels,  I  have  promised  sixty  dollars 
to  carry  this  letter  to  you  and  bring  your  answer.  What  you 
advance  to  him  you  must  advise  me  of. 

"I  am  now  here  on  public  business  for  the  United  Colonies. 
I  want  to  know  the  exact  situation  of  affairs  at  the  Illinois, 
and  what  quantity  of  flour  and  beef  you  could  furnish  a 
company  or  two  of  men  with  at  Kaskaskia,  the  25th  of  next 
December.  This  information  I  will  depend  on  you  for  by  the 
return  of  Silver  Heels,  who  ought  to  be  at  Pittsburgh  as  early 
in  September  as  possible,  as  there  is  a  great  treaty  to  be 
held  in  that  month  with  all  the  Western  Nations.  If  one 
of  you  could  come  along  with  him  it  may  be  much  to  your 
advantage,  but  you  should  be  very  secret  with  respect  to  your 
business. 

"From  what  passed  between  Mr.  Kennedy  and  myself  I 
was  in  hopes  you  would  have  sent  a  parcel  of  horses  and  breed 
mares  (particularly  the  latter  of  the  Spanish  breed)  by  land 
to  Pittsburgh  or  Philada.  I  have  never  since  then  heard 
from  you.  The  conveyance  between  New  Orleans  and  Philada. 
is  now  blocked  up  by  the  misunderstanding  between  the 
Colonies  and  Britain.  We  are  contending  for  our  liberties 
and  have  hitherto  succeeded  beyond  our  hopes,  for  Quebec  is 
the  only  post  now  occupied  by  the  British  forces  in  America. 

"I  have  now  to  request  that  you  will  purchase  and  send 
to  me  at  Pittsburgh  so  as  to  arrive  there  next  October  or 
November  fifteen,  twenty  or  thirty  of  the  best  mares  and 
geldings  or  horses  you  can  purchase  and  in  May  following 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      519 


as  many  more  —  always  preferring  breeding  mares  or  fillies 
of  the  Spanish  breed  and  none  to  exceed  8  or  9  years  old  — 
for  all  which  I  will  either  allow  you  the  cost  and  charges,  or 
what  they  shall  be  valued  at  on  their  arrival  at  Pittsburgh  by 
two  persons  to  be  mutually  chosen  by  us  or  our  attornies  as 
you  shall  advise  me  by  Silver  Heels'  return. 

"I  have  some  time  since  undertaken  the  disposal  of  the 
lands  in  Indiana  on  the  Retribution  Grant  for  the  proprietors ; 
of  whom  your  R.  Winston  is  one  and  considerably  interested. 
I  suppose  his  share  will  be  near  £3,000  sterling.  They  have 
appointed  me  Secretary  and  Receiver  General  of  the  Land 
Office,  but  the  troubles  prevent  my  proceeding  further  at 
present,  especially  as  I  am  much  engaged  as  Superintendent 
for  Indian  Affairs.  But  I  think  it  will  be  well  worthy  your 
R.  Winston's  making  a  trip  this  way  with  Silver  Heels.  — 
By  him  I  will  expect  at  least  3  or  4  of  the  handsomest  breed 
ing  mares  you  can  purchase  and  send  to  me. 

''Tomorrow  I  shall  set  out  on  my  return  to  Pittsburgh 
where  I  shall  generally  reside  and  hope  to  hear  very  particu 
larly  from  you  if  I  do  not  see  you  with  Silver  Heels. 

"I  am  with  regard 

"Your  most  obedient 

"GEORGE  MORGAN. 

"Whatever  remittances  you  can  make  in  the  bill  way  will 
be  very  acceptable.  What  could  a  few  thousand  pounds 
weight  of  powder  and  lead  be  purchased  for  at  the  Illinois  ? 
Do  acquaint  me  with  the  price  of  dry  goods  in  General. 
Encourage  your  friends  to  send  an  adventure  to  Pittsburgh 
this  fall  or  next  spring  of  Stroud,  which  sell  there  for  £22.10 
p.  piece.  Match  coats  are  worth  from  £30  to  £35.  Linnens, 
such  as  used  to  sell  at  2/6  and  3/-,  are  now  6/-  and 
9/-.  Powder  and  lead  are  in  great  demand. 

''To  Messrs.  Winston  and  Kennedy,  Illinois."* 

*  From  the  Haldimand  MSS. 


520       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE  VI. 

THE  HARRODSBURG  MEETING  OF  JUNE  6,   1776. 

"All  Kentucky  was  still  considered  as  a  part  of 
Fincastle  county  and  the  inhabitants  were  therefore 
unrepresented  at  the  capital.  They  determined  to 
remedy  this;  and  after  due  proclamation,  gathered 
together  at  Harrodstown  early  in  June,  1776.  During 
five  days  an  election  was  held,  and  two  delegates  were 
chosen  to  go  to  Williamsburg,  then  the  seat  of  gov 
ernment.  This  was  done  at  the  suggestion  of  Clark." 
(Roosevelt's  The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  I,  pp.  318, 
319).  But  Clark  expressly  states  the  meeting  contin 
ued  but  a  single  day. 

It  is  generally  stated  by  those  writers  who  follow 
Butler  and  who  essay  to  give  the  particulars  of  the 
Harrodsburg  meeting  that  the  two  delegates  were 
aware  they  could  not  obtain  seats  in  the  Virginia  As 
sembly  ;  but  had  this  been  the  case,  they  would  hardly 
have  pressed  the  matter  for  admission,  which  they  sub 
sequently  did,  as  will  hereafter  appear.  Butler  says: 

"At  this  time,  the  claim  of  Henderson  and  Com 
pany,  acquired  under  the  treaty  of  Wataga,  in  March, 
'75,  with  the  Cherokees,  made  a  great  deal  of  noise, 
and  added  no  little  to  the  perplexities  of  the  settlers. 
It  became  uncertain  whether  the  south  side  of  the 
Kentucky  river  appertained  to  Virginia  or  to  North 
Carolina.  These  difficulties  increased  the  necessity  of 
ascertaining  the  disposition  of  the  former;  on  the  6th 
of  June,  at  the  suggestion  of  Clark,  a  general  meeting 
took  place  in  Harrod's  Town,  at  which  he  and  Gabriel 
John  Jones  were  chosen  members  of  the  Assembly  of 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       521 

Virginia.  This,  however,  was  not  the  course  intended 
by  Clark ;  he  wanted  the  people  to  choose  agents  with 
general  powers  to  negotiate  with  the  Government  of 
Virginia,  and  if  abandoned  by  it,  to  employ  the  lands 
of  the  country,  as  a  fund  to  obtain  settlers,  and  estab 
lish  an  independent  State.  The  election  had,  however, 
proceeded  too  far  to  change  its  object,  when  Clark, 
who  had  been  detained,  arrived  at  the  town ;  the  gen 
tlemen  elected,  although  they  were  aware  the  choice 
would  give  them  no  seat  in  the  Legislature,  proceeded 
to  Williamsburg,  at  that  time  the  seat  of  Government 
[History  of  Kentucky,  pp.  37,  38]"  It  will  be  noticed 
that  Butler  now  sees  in  Clark's  plan  much  more  than 
the  simple  defense  of  the  Kentucky  settlements. 


NOTE  VII. 

WHY  POWDER  WAS  ASKED  FOR  BY  CLARK  AND  JONES. 

The  idea  of  getting  a  supply  of  powder  for  the  in 
fant  settlements  of  Kentucky,  and  of  watching  their 
interests,  were  matters  wholly  foreign  to  the  real  object 
of  the  mission  of  Clark  and  Jones.  The  Harrodsburg 
meeting  had  not  deputed  them  for  that  work.  It  was 
clearly  an  after-thought  of  the  two  "delegates."  And, 
besides,  it  readily  suggests  the  inquiry,  why  was  the 
powder  asked. for?  Naturally  it  would  be  inferred  that 
the  reason  was,  the  Indians,  when  Clark  and  Jones  left 
the  settlements,  were  constantly  on  the  war-path  south 
of  the  Ohio,  and  that  ammunition  was  needed  by  the 
settlers.  To  a  certain  extent  this  was  true,  as  will 
presently  be  shown.  Enough  savage  aggressions  had 
taken  place  to  induce  a  general  (but  erroneous)  belief 
that  several  of  the  Indian  nations  north  of  the  Ohio 


522       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

were  then  "at  open  war"  with  the  people  on  the  bor 
ders  of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia.  One  of  the  prin 
cipal  men  in  the  Kentucky  settlements  —  John  Floyd 
—  the  ablest  of  all  Kentucky's  early  pioneers  —  re 
volved  in  his  mind  the  propriety  of  an  expedition  being 
carried  forward  across  the  Ohio  to  relieve  the  people 
at  the  stations,  in  one  of  which  (Boonesborough),  he 
was  then  living.  "If,"  he  wrote  on  the  twenty-first 
of  July,  "an  expedition  were  carried  on  against  those 
natives  [of  Indians]  who  are  at  open  war  with  the 
people  in  general,  we  might  be  in  a  great  measure  re 
lieved,  by  drawing  them  off  to  defend  their  towns." 
But,  although  it  is  altogether  certain  that  the  powder 
was  intended  for  the  settlers  in  defence  of  themselves 
and  their  families  when  attacked  by  lurking  savages, 
the  danger  as  yet  was  not  as  great  as  the  borderers 
imagined  or  Clark  apprehended. 

"On  reaching  the  county  of  Botetourt,"  says  But 
ler,  "it  was  found  [by  Jones  and  Clark]  that  the  Leg 
islature  had  adjourned ;  upon  which  Mr.  Jones  re 
turned  to  the  settlement  on  Holston,  and  left  Clark  to 
attend  to  the  Kentucky  mission."  —  History  of  Ken 
tucky,  p.  38.  Here  Jones  is  given  too  little  credit  and 
Clark  too  much.  There  was  an  excellent  reason  for 
Jones'  return  to  Holston ;  and  Clark  was  not  "left  to 
attend  to  the  Kentucky  mission." 


NOTE  VIII. 

MANN    BUTLER   ON    CLARK'S    PLAN   OF   GOVERNMENT. 

Butler,  absurdly  enough,  takes  it  for  granted  that, 
had  Clark  carried  out  his  determination,  in  the  event 
of  the  payment  for  the  transportation  of  the  powder 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       523 

having  still  been  refused,  and  returned  to  Kentucky, 
the  people  would  readily  have  fallen  in  with  his  plan, 
and  that  Kentucky  would  have  become  an  independent 
State. :  'This  [the  securing  of  the  order  for  convey 
ing  the  gun  powder  to  Pittsburg]  is  the  first  step  in 
the  long  and  affectionate  intercourse  which  has  sub 
sisted  between  Kentucky  and  her  parent  Common 
wealth  ;  and  obvious  as  the  reflection  is,  it  may  not  be 
omitted,  that,  on  the  transportation  of  five  hundred 
weight  of  gunpowder  hung  the  connection  between 
Virginia  and  the  splendid  domain  which  she  obtained 
on  the  west  of  the  Alleghany  mountains  [History  of 
Kentucky,  p.  40]." 


NOTE  IX. 

FORMATION  OF  THE  COUNTY  OF  KENTUCKY. 

The  act  as  passed  was  entitled  "An  act  for  divid 
ing  the  county  of  Fincastle  into  three  distinct  counties, 
and  the  parish  of  Botetourt  into  four  distinct  par 
ishes  ;"  but  the  law  did  not  take  effect  until  "from  and 
after  the  last  day  of  December  next  ensuing ;" —  in 
other  words,  on  the  first  day  of  January,  1777.  All 
that  part  of  Fincastle  county  which  lay  "to  the  south 
and  westward  of  a  line  beginning  on  the  Ohio,  at  the 
mouth  of  Great  Sandy  creek,  and  running  up  the  same 
and  the  main  or  northeasterly  branch  thereof  to  the 
Great  Laurel  Ridge,  or  Cumberland  Mountain,  thence 
southwesterly  along  the  said  mountain  to  the  line  of 
North  Carolina,  shall  be  one  distinct  county  and  called 
and  known  by  the  name  of  Kentucky."  (Hening's 
Virginia  Statutes  at  Large,  Vol.  IX,  pp.  257,  258). 
Fincastle  countv  became  extinct. 


524       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"At  the  fall  session  of  the  Legislature  of  Virginia, 
Messrs.  Jones  and  Clark  laid  the  Kentucky  petition 
before  that  body;  they  were  of  course  not  admitted 
to  Legislative  seats,  though  late  in  the  session,  in  de 
spite  of  the  exertions  of  Cols.  Henderson  and  Campbell, 
they  obtained  the  erection  of  the  County  of  Kentucky, 
which  then  embraced  the  limits  of  the  present  State 
of  that  name.  Thus  our  political  organization  was 
principally  obtained  by  the  generous  daring  of  George 
Rogers  Clark,  who  must  be  ranked  as  the  earliest 
founder  of  the  Commonwealth."  (Butler's  Kentucky, 
p.  40.)  But  the  "generous  daring"  of  Clark  was  not 
great,  and  his  exertions  were  no  more  than  those  of 
his  companion  Jones ;  besides,  both  were  simply  car 
rying  out  instructions  received  from  the  people  of  the 
Kentucky  settlements,  which  were  in  fact,  as  we  have 
seen,  not  what  Clark  really  desired.  Neither  Clark  nor 
Jones  was  the  earliest  founder  of  Kentucky ;  that  honor 
belongs  to  no  person  or  persons  in  particular,  unless 
to  the  Transylvania  Company. 


NOTE  X. 

ON  THE  SUPPRESSION  OF   JOHN   GABRIEL  JONESES   NAME 
IN    KENTUCKY    HISTORY. 

Roosevelt  (The  Winning  of  the  West,  Vol.  I,  p. 
321),  although  giving  a  circumstantial  account  of  the 
Harrodsburg  meeting  —  of  the  selection  of  the  "two 
delegates"  —  of  their  journey  over  the  mountains  — 
of  the  securing  of  the  five  hundred  pounds  of  powder 
—  of  the  formation  of  Kentucky  as  a  separate  county 
—  of  the  transmission  of  the  powder  to  Limestone 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       525 

creek  —  does  not  once  mention  the  name  of  Jones : 
"Clark  took  the  powder  down  the  Ohio  river"  — 
"Clark's  fellow  delegate  being  among  the  killed,"  — 
"Before  returning,  Clark  had  attended  the  fall  meeting 
of  the  Virginia  Legislature"  -  —  "he  [Clark]  procured 
the  admission  of  Kentucky  as  a  separate  county." 
[The  italicising  is  mine]." 

And  thus  Bancroft  (History  of  the  United  States, 
edition  of  1885,  Vol.  V,  p.  309)  : 

"On  the  sixth  of  June,  1776,  the  emigrants  to  the 
region  west  of  the  Louisa  river,  at  a  general  meeting 
in  Harrodston  [sic,]  elected  George  Rogers  Clark,  then 
midway  in  his  twenty- fourth  year,  and  one  other,  to 
represent  them  in  the  assembly  of  Virginia,  with  a  re 
quest  that  their  settlements  might  be  constituted  a 
county.  Before  they  could  cross  the  mountains,  the 
legislature  of  Virginia  had  declared  independence,  es 
tablished  a  government,  and  adjourned.  In  a  later 
session  they  [Clark  'and  one  other']  were  not  admitted 
to  seats  in  the  house ;  but  on  the  sixth  of  December, 
1776,  the  westernmost  part  of  the  State  was  incorpor 
ated  by  the  name  of  the  county  of  Kentucky.' ': 

Other  writers  also  give  (strange  as  it  may  seem) 
the  whole  credit  to  Clark  for  the  favorable  termination 
of  the  mission  —  the  formation  of  a  new  county : 
"Our  first  political  organization  [the  creation  of  Ken 
tucky  county]  was  .  .  .  obtained  through  the  sa 
gacity,  influence  and  exertions  of  George  Rogers  Clark, 
who  must  be  ranked  as  the  earliest  founder  of  this 
commonwealth  [that  is,  of  Kentucky]."  [Collins' 
Kentucky  (Ed.  of  1877),  P-  :35-]  But  tnat  the  suc 
cess  met  with  by  the  two  "delegates"  in  the  object  at 
tained —  that  is,  in  getting  a  new  county  created  was 


526       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

as  much  due  to  the  labor  and  influence  of  Jones  as  of 
Clark  there  is  not  a  doubt. 

"Early  in  1775,  Clark  went  to  Kentucky  and  was 
occupied  in  surveying;  but,  as  the  western  Indians 
were  induced  by  the  British  to  take  up  the  tomahawk,  he 
became  the  natural  leader  of  the  people  in  the  defence 
of  their  infant  settlements,  was  made  a  major  of  the 
militia  in  1776,  and  chosen  as  a  delegate  to  the  Vir 
ginia  Convention,  to  urge  upon  the  State  authorities 
of  the  colony  for  government  and  defense.  He  arrived 
at  Williamsburg  just  after  the  convention  had  ad 
journed  but  succeeded  in  procuring  the  formation  of 
the  new  county  of  Kentucky  and  a  supply  of  ammuni 
tion  for  the  defense  of  the  frontier."  (Draper,  in 
Appleton's  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography  Art. 
"George  Rogers  Clark.") 

This  writer,  during  a  period  of  nearly  half  a  cen 
tury,  several  times  announced  to  the  public  that  he  was 
gathering  materials  for  a  life  of  Clark ;  but  the  "Life" 
never  appeared.  It  is  perhaps  fortunate  that  it  did 
not.  The  errors  in  the  lines  quoted  are,  ( i )  that  Clark, 
in  1775,  because  of  Indian  marauds  became  the  natural 
leader  of  the  Kentuckians  in  the  defense  of  their  in 
fant  settlements;  (2)  that  he  was  made  a  major  of 
militia  in  1776;  and  (3)  that  he  alone  (this  is  the  in 
ference)  procured  the  formation  of  the  county  of  Ken 
tucky. 

"A  great  leader  was  needed  on  the  frontier  and 
one  was  at  hand.  George  Rogers  Clark,  a  young 
Virginian  of  extraordinary  character,  had  settled  in 
Kentucky  in  1776.  He  had  secured  the  organization 
of  Kentucky  as  a  county  of  Virginia  ;  he  had  persuaded 
the  Executive  Council  to  contribute  500  pounds  of 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       527 

powder  to  the  defense  of  the  frontier;  and  now  his 
fertile  brain  was  developing  a  great  project."  — 
Dunn's  Indiana,  p.  132.  (The  italicising  is  mine.) 

"At  the  ensuing  session  of  the  General  Assembly, 
Clark  and  Jones  presented  the  memorial  of  the  inhabit 
ants  of  Kentucky,  requesting  that  their  delegates  might 
be  permitted  to  take  seats  in  that  body.  It  prayed  also 
that  the  settlements  on  the  western  frontier  might  be 
considered  as  included  within  the  territorial  limits  of 
Virginia,  and  that  a  company  of  riflemen  should  be 
sent  to  their  relief.  The  petition  setting  forth  their 
causes  of  complaint  against  the  government  of  Tran 
sylvania  was  offered  at  the  same  time.  The  General 
Assembly  took  all  these  subjects  into  earnest  consider 
ation.  They  did  not,  of  course,  recognize  the  delegates 
as  legislators,  but  they  were  received  and  treated  with 
great  civility  as  citizens,  and  the  grievances  of  their 
constituents  were  most  respectfully  heard.  Col.  Hen 
derson  was  himself  at  Williamsburg,  maintaining  the 
validity  of  his  purchase,  and  consequently  of  the  title 
of  the  company  to  the  land  contained  in  the  deed  from 
the  Cherokees.  He  was  a  man  of  considerable  abilities, 
of  persuasive  eloquence,  of  interesting  manners,  and 
wielded  an  influence  which  was  not  without  its  weight 
in  the  councils  of  Virginia.  But  Clark  was  a  compet 
itor  whose  powers  were  not  easily  overcome.  After  a 
severe  contest,  the  General  Assembly  declared  against 
the  title  of  the  Transylvania  company,  and  on  the  7th 
of  December,  1776,  passed  a  law  to  establish  the 
"County  of  Kentucky."  —  Morehead's  Address,  pp. 
55,  56.  The  injustice  of  naming  Jones  but  once  in  this 
relation  is  manifest.  The  account  was  written  after 
Clark  became  famous, 


528       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE  XL 

AS  TO  THE  TRANSMISSION  OF  THE  GUNPOWDER  DONATED 
BY  VIRGINIA,   TO  THE    KENTUCKY   SETTLEMENTS. 

While  it  is  true  that,  during  the  absence  of  Jones 
and  Clark  from  the  Kentucky  settlements,  Indian  dep 
redations  had  somewhat  increased,  nevertheless,  most 
accounts  of  the  return  of  these  men  depict,  in  too 
strong  colors,  the  dangers  which  beset  them  on  their 
journey  from  Pittsburg  down  the  Ohio.  Thus,  in  Col- 
lins's  Kentucky  (ed.  of  1877),  P-  Z35>  we  read: 

"Having  obtained  these  important  advantages 
[that  of  a  prospective  representation  in  the  Virginia 
Assembly,  and  a  judicial  and  military  establishment, 
by  the  creation  of  the  county  of  Kentucky]  from  their 
mission,  they  [Clark  and  Jones]  received  the  intelli 
gence  that  the  powder  was  still  at  Pittsburg,  and  they 
determined  to  take  that  point  in  their  route  home,  and 
bring  it  with  them.  The  country  around  Pittsburg 
swarmed  with  Indians,  evidently  hostile  to  the  whites, 
who  would  no  doubt  seek  to  interrupt  their  voyage. 
These  circumstances  created  a  necessity  for  the  utmost 
caution  as  well  as  expedition  in  their  movements,  and 
they  accordingly  hastily  embarked  on  the  Ohio  with 
only  seven  boatmen.  They  were  hotly  pursued  the 
whole  way  by  Indians,  but  succeeded  in  keeping  in 
advance  until  they  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  Limestone 
creek,  at  the  spot  where  the  city  of  Maysville  now 
stands.  They  ascended  this  creek  a  short  distance  with 
their  boat,  and  concealed  their  cargo  at  different  places 
in  the  woods  along  its  banks.  They  then  turned  their 
boat  adrift,  and  directed  their  course  to  Harrodstown, 
intending  to  return  with  a  sufficient  escort  to  insure  the 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       529 

safe  transportation  of  the  powder  to  its  destination. 
This  in  a  short  time  was  successfully  effected,  and  the 
colonists  were  thus  abundantly  supplied  with  the  means 
of  defense  against  the  fierce  enemies  who  beset  them 
on  all  sides."  Afterward,  in  the  same  work,  we  have 
the  following1  account  (pp.  466,  467)  : 

"The  five  hundred  pounds  of  powder  which  Maj. 
George  Clark  and  John  Gabriel  Jones  procured,  by 
order  of  the  Council  of  Virginia,  on  August  23,  1776, 
at  Pittsburg,  for  the  relief  of  the  settlers  in  Kentucky, 
they  brought  down  the  Ohio  and  secreted  at  the  Three 
Islands  in  what  is  now  Lewis  county,  near  Manchester, 
Ohio,  and  about  eleven  miles  above  Limestone  (Mays- 
ville).  Col.  John  Todd  and- a  party  of  men  were  sent 
after  this  powder  under  the  guidance  of  [John]  Ga 
briel  Jones ;  but,  on  December  25,  1776,  when  near  the 
Lower  Blue  Lick,  being  attacked  by  Indians  and  Jones, 
William  Graden  and  Josiah  Dixen  killed,  [they]  aban 
doned  the  expedition.  January  2,  1777,  at  Harrods- 
burg,  Col.  James  Harrison  raised  a  company  of  about 
thirty  men  to  go  after  the  powder.  .  .  They  went 
by  McClellan's  fort  (now  Georgetown),  the  Lower 
Blue  Lick  and  May's  Lick,  then  turned  to  the  right  a 
little  and  struck  the  Ohio  at  or  near  the  mouth  of 
Cabin  creek."  (See,  also,  pp.  552  and  656  of  the  same 
work).  On  the  page  last  mentioned  are  some  addi 
tional  facts.  One  account  makes  the  place  where  the 
first  party  started  for  the  powder  as  McClelland's 
station,  —  the  attack  as  having  been  on  Johnson's  Fork 
of  Licking,  and  that  Joseph  Rogers  was  taken  pris 
oner.  But  it  gives  the  number  of  the  party  erroneously 
as  nine,  and  the  date  of  the  encounter  as  the  28th  of 
December. 
34 


530       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Tradition  has  caused  the  most  absurd  mixing  of 
facts  with  error  concerning  the  journey  of  Jones  and 
Clark  from  Pittsburg: 

"Having  at  length  performed  the  whole  of  his 
mission,  Clark  proceeded,  early  in  the  spring  of  1777, 
to  Fort  Pitt,  in  order  to  attend  personally  to  the  trans 
portation  of  the  powder,  which  still  remained  at  that 
point  waiting  his  orders.  This  he  embarked  on  a  flat 
boat,  and  in  company  with  Mr.  Jones  and  four  other 
men,  committed  himself  and  his  treasure  to  the  current 
of  the  beautiful  river  [the  Ohio].  But  scarcely  had 
they  floated  out  of  sight  of  the  garrison  flag  when  they 
saw  a  canoe  stealing  forth  from  the  bank,  and  knew 
at  once  they  were  watched  by  the  savages.  From  this 
point  the  pursuit  was  unremitting,  for  the  Indians  had 
learned  that  the  solitary  ark  bore  the  fortune  of  the 
detested  Big  Knives  of  Kentucky. 

"We  know  of  nothing  that  shows  more  strikingly 
by  the  tireless  perseverence  of  these  people  than  this 
long  chase  from  Pittsburg  into  the  heart  of  Kentucky, 
a  distance  of  five  hundred  miles ;  at  the  end  of  which 
they  were  so  close  upon  their  prey  that  Clark  himself 
was  only  saved  from  death  or  captivity  by  an  uncon 
scious  exercise  of  his  characteristic  promptitude.  For 
after,  upon  one  occasion,  concealing  the  powder  upon 
the  bank  and  setting  the  boat  adrift,  he  had  set  off 
with  his  little  party  for  Harrod's  fort,  intending  to 
return  immediately  with  a  large  force,  and  convey 
it  away.  The  next  day  they  arrived  at  a  cabin  on  a 
branch  of  the  Licking,  where  he  was  informed  that 
Colonel  Todd  was  then  in  the  vicinity  with  a  number 
of  men  sufficient  for  his  purpose.  He  remained  here 
a  few  hours  and  then  pushed  on,  not  choosing  to  wait 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       531 

an  indefinite  time  for  assistance,  which  he  could  cer 
tainly  obtain  by  an  additional  tramp  of  fifty  or  sixty 
miles  through  the  wilderness.  Jones,  unlucky  for  him 
self,  chose  to  consult  his  ease  by  remaining  behind. 
Clark  had  departed  but  a  few  hours  when  Todd  came 
up  with  ten  or  twelve  men,  and  thinking  himself  strong 
enough  for  the  service,  determined  to  transport  the 
powder  into  the  settlements  without  delay,  taking  Jones 
and  his  two  companions  as  guides,  the  other  two  hav 
ing  accompanied  the  Colonel  [Clark].  They  had  ad 
vanced  but  a  few  miles  when  they  met  a  large  party 
of  Indians  following  swiftly  upon  Clark's  trail,  and  a 
sharp  fight  at  once  commenced,  in  which  the  whites 
were  quickly  overpowered,  Todd  and  Jones  being 
killed,  together  with  more  than  half  their  men  and  the 
rest  made  prisoners.  Fortunately  they  proved  true  to 
their  friends,  and  did  not  betray  the  secret  of  the  con 
cealed  powder,  which,  in  a  few  days  was  safely  re 
moved  by  Clark  and  distributed  among  the  settlers, 
who  were  thus  enabled  to  carry  on  the  war  with 
greater  vigor  than  before."  -  —  Coleman,  in  Harper's 
Magazine,  vol.  XXII,  p.  787. 

A  somewhat  different  narrative  is  given  in  More- 
head's  Address  (pp.  56,  57),  which  says: 

"Hearing  that  the  powder  which  the  Council  had 
furnished  was  still  at  Pittsburg,  they  [Clark  and 
Jones]  resolved  to  take  that  place  in  their  route,  and 
superintend  in  person  the  transmission  of  an  article  so 
necessary  to  the  safety  of  the  people  of  the  stations. 
On  their  arrival  at  Pittsburg,  they  discovered  that  a 
body  of  Indians  had  collected  there,  ostensibly  for  the 
purpose  of  negotiation,  but  employed,  as  they  believed, 
in  acquiring  information  of  the  movements  of  the  em- 


532       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

igrants,  to  enable  them  to  intercept  the  passage  of 
boats  down  the  Ohio  river,  which  was  then.  .  .  the 
principal  thoroughfare  of  trade  and  transportation 
from  the  east  to  the  west.  It  became  important,  there 
fore,  that  Clark  and  his  colleague  should  counteract  by 
the  celerity  of  their  movements,  these  mischievous  de 
signs  of  the  Indians.  They  procured  and  manned  a 
boat  —  descended  the  river  with  all  possible  expedi 
tion  —  landed  at  Limestone  creek,  the  present  site  of 
the  city  of  Maysville  —  carefully  concealed  the  powder 
on  its  banks  —  and  set  out  immediately  to  Harrods- 
burg  for  an  escort  to  convey  it  to  the  stations.  Thus 
far,  they  had  met  with  no  interruption ;  but  they  were 
now  about  to  penetrate  the  haunted  wilds  of  Kentucky, 
and  who  could  answer  for  their  safety?  Halting  on 
their  journey  at  a  cabin  that  sheltered  a  settler  whose 
name  was  Hinkston,  they  ascertained  from  a  party  of 
surveyors  that  Col.  John  Todd  was  in  the  vicinity  with 
a  small  company  under  his  command.  On  the  recep 
tion  of  this  intelligence,  Clark  waited  a  short  time  for 
his  arrival,  but  becoming  hopeless  of  meeting  him,  he 
resumed  his  journey  with  two  of  his  men,  leaving  the 
remainder  of  his  little  party  with  his  colleague.  Soon 
after  his  departure,  Col.  Todd  arrived  at  Hinkston's, 
and  confident  of  the  sufficiency  of  his  force,  although 
he  had  but  ten  men  along  with  him,  he  resolved  upon 
an  attempt  to  remove  the  powder  from  Limestone. 
The  historian  has  not  defined  the  position  of  Hinks 
ton's  cabin ;  it  was  probably  not  remote  from  the 
stream  which  now  bears  his  name  in  the  county  of 
Bourbon.  Todd  marched  on  until  he  approached  the 
Blue  Licks  .  .  .  and  was  attacked  by  a  party  of 
Indians  who  were  in  pursuit  of  Clark.  A  skirmish 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       533 

ensued  which  resulted  in  the  defeat  of  Col.  Todd,  and 
the  loss  of  several  of  his  men.  Jones,  who  had  attached 
himself  to  the  company,  was  among  the  number  of  the 
slain.  Clark  pushed  on  to  Harrodsburg,  from  whence 
he  sent  a  detachment  to  Limestone  for  the  powder, 
which  was  conveyed  safely  to  the  station."  This  ac 
count  is  substantially  the  same  as  had  previously  been 
published  by  Butler  (History  of  Kentucky,  pp.  40, 

42). 

In  Appleton's  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biogra 
phy,  Art..  "George  Rogers  Clark,"  it  is  said,  by  Dra 
per  that,  "The  500  pounds  of  powder  .  .  was  con 
veyed  by  land  to  the  Monongahela  and  thence  by  water 
to  the  Three  Islands  a  few  miles  above  where  Mays- 
ville  now  is,  and  there  secreted  while  Clark  and  his 
escort  went  to  Harrodsburg  for  horses  and  a  guard  for 
its  conveyance  to  that  station."  This  contains,  by  in 
ference,  an  error  —  that  Clark  went  on  to  Harrods 
burg  after  the  powder  was  secreted,  not  to  complete 
his  journey,  but  "for  horses  and  a  guard  for  its  con 
veyance  to  that  station."  The  facts  are  that  he  and 
Jones  went  on  to  McClelland's  station ;  and,  from  that 
place,  the  first  party,  with  Jones  as  a  guide,  set  out  for 
the  powder ;  it  was  the  second  party  that  went  from 
Harrodsburg. 

One  of  the  latest  accounts  concerning  Clark's  ob 
taining  the  powder  and  returning  with  it  to  Kentucky 
is  the  following: 

"In  the  midsummer  days  —  after  the  marriage  of 
Samuel  Henderson  and  Elizabeth  Callerray  by  Squire 
Boone  (the  brother  of  Daniel,  and  a  sort  of  amateur 
Baptist  preacher)  —  George  Rogers  Clark  returned 
from  Virginia,  bringing  with  him  five  hundred  pounds 


534       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

of  powder.  This  he  had  extorted  from  the  Legislature 
for  the  defense  of  Kentucky ;  for  by  this  time  the 
forests  were  full  of  Indians,  seeking  Yankee  scalps, 
for  which  the  British  had  offered  rewards. 

"  'I  told  the  Virginia  folks/  said  Clark,  'that  Ken 
tucky  would  wait  a  reasonable  length  of  time  and  then 
look  elsewhere  for  assistance.  I  told  them  that  a  coun 
try  that  was  not  worth  defending  was  not  worth  hav 
ing.'  '  —  Emma  M.  Connelley's  The  Story  of  Ken 
tucky,  p.  57. 

The  idea  of  Clark  "extorting"  the  powder  from 
the  Virginia  Legislature  which  was  not  then  in  session 
seems  to  be  an  original  one  with  that  writer. 

It  seems  the  powder  was  put  up  in  twenty-five 
kegs,  twenty  pounds  only  in  each  keg:  "A  volunteer 
with  Robert  Patterson  and  twenty-eight  other  pioneers 
of  Kentucky,  he  [Kenton]  accompanied  Major  George 
Rogers  Clark  from  Harrod's  Station  to  the  mouth  of 
Limestone  creek,  for  the  purpose  of  escorting  and 
transporting  on  foot  twenty-five  kegs  of  powder  to  the 
stations  on  Kentucky  river."  (Monnett's  Valley  of 
the  Mississippi^  vol.  II,  p.  63.) 


NOTE  XII. 

HAMILTON   AUTHORIZED   TO   EMPLOY   INDIANS. 

"In  the  month  of  June  [May],  1777,  Lieut.  Gover 
nor  Cramahe'  [it  was  Governor  Carleton]  wrote  me  a 
letter  containing  a  copy  of  Lord  George  Germain's 
orders  and  instructions,  by  which  I  was  authorized  to 
appoint  proper  officers  and  interpreters  and  to  send 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       535 

them  with  the  Indians  against  the  rebels  with  the 
strictest  injunction  to  discourage  and  restrain  them 
from  their  usual  barbarities." —  Hamilton  to  Haldi- 
mand,  July  6,  1781. —  Germain  Mss. 

"In  the  month  of  June,  [the  month  in  which  the 
letter  was  -received],  1777,  I  was  authorized  to  raise 
and  employ  the  Indians,  till  which  time  I  had  exerted 
myself  to  restrain  these  people  from  taking  an  active 
part." — Hamilton  to  the  Commissioners  of  His  Maj 
esty's  Treasury,  1783,  MS.  Carleton's  letter  was  re 
ceived  by  Hamilton  on  the  sixteenth  day  of  June. 


NOTE  XIII. 

MOORE   AND   LINN    GO    AS    MILITIA   TO    THE    ILLINOIS. 

Most  writers  who  have  mentioned  the  two  young 
men  sent  to  the  Illinois  by  Clark  give  the  name  of 
Linn  incorrectly  as  "Dunn" —  following  Butler,  in  his 
History  of  Kentucky,  p.  46.  The  words  of  Clark,  in 
his  diary,  as  to  sending  these  men  —  that  they  went  as 
an  "express  to  the  -Illinois" —  imply  they  were  dis 
patched  by  him  as  an  officer  of  the  militia  and  were  to 
be  paid  by  the  State.  They  were  both  serving  under 
Clark,  and  Linn  was  a  lieutenant. 


NOTE  XIV. 

MYTHICAL  ACCOUNTS  OF  INDIAN  SIEGES  OF  HARRODS- 
BURG  AND  LOGAN'S  FORT,  1777. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  in  the  whole  list  of  traditions 
preserved  in  Kentucky  history  one  can  be  found  more 


536       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

completely  mythical  than  that  given  at  length  in  Har 
per's  Magazine,  vol.  XXII,  pp.  787-789,  concerning 
a  supposed  siege,  in  1777,  of  Harrodsburg.  After  re 
lating  the  exploits  of  young  Ray  and  the  part  taken 
by  Clark,  the  writer  says: 

"What  the  number  of  the  besiegers  had  been  was 
now  first  seen ;  for,  at  the  distance  of  four  or  five 
hundred  yards  from  the  fort,  the  whites  came  upon  a 
camp,  which,  from  every  appearance,  had  been  used 
the  whole  summer  by  at  least  five  or  six  hundred 
warriors.  Yet  so  closely  had  the  settlers  been  con 
fined  during  all  that  time  that  they  had  never  sus 
pected  the  existence  of  such  an  extensive  establish 
ment,  though  almost  within  sight  of  their  own  block 
houses. 

"These  incidents  give  a  vivid  picture  of  the  state 
of  the  country  at  that  period,  and  of  the  kind  of  ser 
vice  in  which  Clark  was  occupied  during  the  year.  .  . 
Besides,  this  siege  of  Harrodsfort  is  remarkable  in 
the  early  history  of  Kentucky  as  the  first  instance  in 
which  the  impatient  warriors  of  the  forest  had  so  far 
deviated  from  their  usual  habits  as  to  sit  down  for 
any  great  length  of  time  before  a  fortified  post"  (p. 

789). 

At  no  time  during  the  year  1777  were  there  as 
many  as  fifty  Indians  in  one  party  near  Harrodsburg, 
so  far  as  known ;  and  the  visit  of  a  savage  band  was 
always  of  brief  duration,  They  came  suddenly  and 
quickly  disappeared.  This  whole  story  of  a  siege  is 
an  exaggerated  outgrowth  of  the  various  skirmishes 
with  the  Indians  during  the  year.  (Compare,  in  this 
connection,  Butler's  Kentucky,  pp.  42-45.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       537 

In  Collins'  Kentucky  (ed.  of  1877),  p.  469,  may  be 
found  a  circumstantial  account  of  the  attack  on  Logan's 
fort  May  30,  1777;  but  the  date  as  there  given  (May 
20)  is  error.  However,  the  principal  mistake  in  the 
account  is  that  which  makes  the  Indians  remain 
around  the  fort  until  the  appearance  of  Col.  Bowman. 


NOTE  XV. 

EXTRACTS  FROM   CLARIES  DIARY,    1777- 

"April  20. —  Ben.  Linn  and  Samuel  Moore  sent 
express  to  the  Illinois. 

"April  24. —  Forty  or  fifty  Indians  attacked  Boones- 
borough,  killed  and  scalped  Daniel  Goodman,  wounded 
Capt.  Boone,  Capt.  Todd,  Mr.  Hite,  and  Mr.  Stoner. 
Indians,  'tis  thought,  sustained  much  damage. 

"April  29. —  Indians  attacked  the  fort  [Harrods- 
burg]  and  killed  Ensign  McConnell. 

"May  6. —  Indians  discovered  placing  themselves 
near  the  fort  [Harrodsburg].  A  few  shots  exchanged 
—  no  harm  done. 

"May  12. —  John  Cowan  and  Squire  Boone  arrived 
from  the  settlement  [that  is,  from  over  the  mountains]. 

"May  1 8. —  McGary  and  Haggin  sent  express  to 
Fort  Pitt. 

"May  23. —  John  Todd  and  company  set  off  for  the 
settlement  [i.  e.,  for  the  settled  portions  of  Virginia 
over  the  mountains, —  Todd's  destination  as  burgess- 
elect  being  Williamsburg]. 

"May  23  [?]. —  A  large  party  of  Indians  attacked 
Boonesborough  fort ;  kept  a  warm  firing  until  eleven 


538       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

o'clock  at  night;  began  it  next  morning  and  kept  a 
warm  firing  until  midnight,  attempting  several  times 
to  burn  the  fort;  three  of  our  men  were  wounded  — 
not  mortally;  the  enemy  suffered  considerably. 

"May  26. —  A  party  went  out  to  hunt  Indians;  one 
wounded  Squire  Boone  and  escaped. 

"May  30. —  Indians  attacked  Logan's  fort ;  killed 
and  scalped  William  Hudson,  wounded  Burr  Harrison 
and  John  Kennedy. 

"June  5. —  Harrod  and  Elliot  went  to  meet  Colonel 
Bowman  and  company ;  Glen  and  Laird  arrived  from 
Cumberland ;  Daniel  Lyons,  who  parted  with  them  on 
Green  river,  we  suppose  was  killed  going  into  Logan's 
Fort.  John  Peters  and  Elisha  Bathey  we  expect  were 
killed  coming  home  from  Cumberland. 

"June  13. —  Burr  Harrison  died  of  his  wounds  re 
ceived  the  3Oth  of  May. 

"June  22. —  Ben  Linn  and  Samuel  Moore  arrived 
from  the  Illinois.  Barney  Stagner,  Sen.,  killed  and 
beheaded  half  mile  from  the  fort  [Harrodsburg]. —  A 
few  guns  fired  at  Boone's. 

"July  9. —  Lieutenant  Linn  married  —  great  merri 
ment. 

"July  n. —  Harrod  returned. 

"July  23. —  Express  returned  from  Pittsburgh. 

"August  i. —  Col.  Bowman  arrived  at  Boonesbor- 
ough. 

"August  5. —  Surrounded  ten  or  twelve  Indians 
near  the  fort  [Harrodsburg] — killed  three  and  wound 
ed  others ;  the  plunder  was  sold  for  upwards  of  £70. 

"August  ii. —  John  Higgins  died  of  a  lingering 
disorder. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       539 

"August  25. —  Ambrose  Grayson  killed  near  Lo 
gan's  Fort,  and  [the  savages]  wounded  two  others ; 
Indians  escaped. 

"September  2. —  Col.  Bowman  and  company  ar 
rived  at  this  place  [Harrodsburg]  ;  court  held,  etc. 

"September  8. —  Twenty-seven  men  set  out  for  the 
settlement  [i.  e.,  for  the  settlements  east  of  the  moun 
tains]. 

"September  9. —  Indians  discovered  [at  Harrods 
burg] —  a  shot  exchanged  —  nothing  done  [that  is, 
no  one  hurt]. 

"September  n. —  Thirty-seven  men  went  to  Joseph 
Bowman's  for  corn ;  while  shelling  they  were  fired  on ; 
a  skirmish  ensued ;  Indians  drew  off,  leaving  two  dead 
on  the  spot  and  much  blood ;  Eli  Gerrard  was  killed 
on  the  spot  and  six  others  wounded. 

"September  12. —  Daniel  Bryan  died  of  his  wounds 
received  yesterday. 

"September  17. —  Express  sent  to  the  settlement 
[i.  e.,  over  the  mountains]  ;  Mrs.  Sanders  died. 

"September  23. —  Express  arrived  from  Boone's 
and  says  that,  on  the  I3th  Captain  Smith  arrived  there 
with  48  men —  150  more  on  the  march  for  this  [place 
—  that  is,  for  Harrodsburg]  :  also,  that  General  Wash 
ington  had  defeated  Howe  —  joyful  news,  if  true. 

"September  26. —  Brought  in  a  load  of  corn  — 
frost  in  the  morning." 


NOTE  XVI. 

CLARK    PERMANENTLY    MADE    A    HERO. 

"The  space  allotted  to  this  brief  sketch  [of  Clark] 
will  not  admit  of  a  detailed  narrative  of  the  adventures 


540       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

of  Major  Clark  after  his  return  to  Kentucky  [from 
Williamsburg  with  his  associate,  Jones]  Let  it  suffice 
to  say,  that  he  was  universally  looked  up  to  by  the 
settlers  as  one  of  the  master  spirits  of  the  time,  and 
[was]  always  foremost  in  the  fierce  conflicts  and  des 
perate  deeds  of  those  wild  and  thrilling  days.". —  Col- 
lins's  Kentucky  (ed.  of  1877),  p.  135.  The  same 
writer  says  that  Clark  "appears  to  have  taken  a  pecu 
liar  pleasure"  in  that  series  of  private  and  solitary  ad 
ventures  [in  1777]  in  which  he  embarked  after  he 
returned  from  Virginia  [late  in  December,  1776]." 

But  these  statements  are  too  inflated.  There  is 
no  cotemporary  evidence  that  he  was  "universally 
looked  up  to  by  the  settlers  as  one  of  the  master 
spirits  of  the  time ;"  besides,  it  is  certainly  not  true 
that  he  was  "always  foremost  in  the  fierce  conflicts 
and  desperate  deeds  of  those  wild  and  thrilling  days." 
The  writer  of  these  sentences  had  considerable  knowl 
edge  of  Clark's  subsequent  career,  and  he  makes  him  a 
hero  permanently. 


NOTE  XVII. 
OF  CLARK'S  LETTER  TO  GEORGE  MASON,  NOV.  19,  1779. 

"From  this  letter  [of  Clark]  to  George  Mason,  pre 
sented  by  him  to  the  Kentucky  Historical  Society,  we 
learn  of  the  almost  paternal  relation  which  Mason 
seemed  to  hold  to  the  impetuous  and  gallant  young 
soldier  and  of  the  warm  regard  and  esteem  that  sub 
sisted  between  the  two  friends.  .  .  .  He  wrote 
from  Louisville  on  the  I9th  of  November,  1779,  and 
prefaces  his  recital  with  the  following  respectful  and 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       541 

affectionate  apology  for  former  negligence:  'My  dear 
Sir :  Continue  to  favor  me  with  your  valuable  lessons. 
Continue  your  reprimands  as  though  I  were  your  son ; 
when  suspicious,  think  not  that  promotion  or  conferred 
honor  will  occasion  any  unnecessary  pride  in  me.  You 
have  infused  too  many  of  your  valuable  precepts  in 
me  [for  me]  to  be  guilty  of  the  like,  or  to  show  any 
indifference  to  those  that  ought  to  be  dear  to  me. 
It  is  with  pleasure  that  I  obey  in  transmitting  to  you 
a  short  sketch  of  my  enterprise  and  proceedings  in  the 
lilincis,  as  near  as  I  can  recollect  or  gather  from  mem 
orandums'."  (Kate  Mason  Rowland's  Life  of  George 
Mason,,  Vol.  I,  pp.  310,  311.  See,  also,  Clark's  Cam 
paign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  21.) 


NOTE  XVIII. 

CLARK    AS    A    HORSE    TRADER. 

Clark  purchased  a  horse  for  £12,  and  traded  with 
Isaac  Shelby  for  another,  getting  £10  "to  boot."  But 
his  diary  is  silent  as  to  the  value  of  the  Shelby  equine. 
We  may  surmise,  however  from  what  subsequently 
took  place  that  even  at  £2,  (the  sum  the  second  horse 
really  cost  him)  there  was  no  great  bargain  in  the 
trade ;  for  he  subsequently  "swapped"  again,  giving 
this  time  (instead  of  receiving)  "boot  money,"  to  the 
amount  of  £7,  IDS. 

A  late  writer  cannot  brook  the  idea  that  Clark  — 
his  hero  —  could  have  been  cheated ;  so  he  declares 
"he  evidently  knew  how  to  make  a  good  bargain,  and 
had  the'true  backwoods  passion  for  barter"  (Roosevelt : 


542       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  II,  p.  34).  But  Shelby 
may  have  had  the  "true  backwoods  passion"  as  largely 
developed  as  Clark. 

In  his  diary,  under  date  of  September  29,  Clark 
also  speaks  of  having  purchased  eighteen  pounds  of 
powder  and  twenty-two  of  lead,  from  Silas  Harland 
and  James  Harrod ;  but  this  ammunition  was  probably 
for  public  use,  not  to  sell  or  barter  as  his  own  property. 


NOTE  XIX. 


SETTLEMENT    OF    CLARK  S    ACCOUNT    AS    MAJOR. 

In  referring  the  matter  of  the  payment  of  the  Ken 
tucky  militia  for  their  services  to  the  Virginia  House 
of  Delegates,  Governor  Henry  wrote  as  follows : 

"WILLIAMSBURG,  November  llth,  1777. 
"SiR:  Pay  rolls  for  the  militia  of  Kentucky  have  been 
laid  before  the  auditors,  in  order  to  obtain  warrants  for  pay 
ment.  The  auditors  have  scrupled  to  allow  this  militia  the 
pay  fixed  by  law  for  those  on  actual  duty,  because  they  were 
obliged  for  their  own  personal  safety  and  the  security  of 
their  wives  and  children,  to  keep  themselves  in  forts  and  re 
main  on  the  defensive  against  parties  of  Indians  continually 
infesting  that  country,  too  numerous  to  permit  the  inhabitants 
to  return  to  their  plantations.  The  pay  rolls  are  properly 
authenticated  by  the  commanding  officer  [Major  George 
Rogers  Clark]  under  whose  orders  the  men  acted.  In  this 
state  of  the  case,  the  advice  of  the  Executive  power  is  re 
quested,  and  as  I  am  in  doubt  on  the  subject,  I  am  to  pray, 
Sir,  to  take  the  sense  of  the  Assembly  on  it.  I  am  sensible 
that  many  instances  have  occurred  similar  to  this,  in  which 
pay  has  been  allowed,  and  I  wish  to  put  a  stop  to  such  a 
practice  if  it  is  wrong,  and  that  no  doubt  of  its  rectitude 
may  remain  if  k  is  proper.  It  may  be  observed,  that  250 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       543 

men  have  been  ordered  by  government  from  the  more  interior 
counties  to  that  place  for  its  protection,  the  time  of  whose 
arrival  there  I  cannot  ascertain. 
"I  have  the  honor  to  be, 

"Sir,  Your  Most  humble  Servant, 

"P.  HENRY. 
"The  HONBLE  GEORGE  WYTHE,  ESQ., 

"Speaker  of  the  House  of  Delegates." 

Clark's  entries  in  his  diary  for  the  seventh,  eighth, 
ninth  and  tenth  of  November  are  somewhat  vague. 
(See  Note  XX,  following.)  On  the  first  day  men 
tioned,  he  says  he  called  upon  the  auditors  and  laid 
before  them 'the  Kentucky  accounts;  the  auditors  re 
fused  to  settle  them  without  the  consent  of  the  Council. 
So  far  his  entries  are  correct;  but,  on  the  eighth,  his 
entry  is,  "Got  an  order  from  the  Council  to  settle 
them  [the  accounts]."  This  is  probably  an  error  in 
the  date.  Again,  on  the  tenth,  he  writes :  "Passed  the 
accounts  with  the  auditors,  except  my  own,  which 
they  refuse  to  settle  without  consent  of  the  Council. 
This,  too,  is  probably  an  error  in  the  date.  Both  in 
cidents  mentioned  took  place  after  the  eleventh,  as 
shown  by  the  letter  of  Governor  Henry;  however,  it 
is  possible  that  the  mistake  is  in  the  letter  and  not  in 
the  diary,  but  this  is  not  probable,  as  a  careful  study 
of  the  diary  sufficiently  discloses. 

It  is  evident  that  when  his  own  accounts  were 
settled,  the  Major  resigned  his  'commission,  although 
there  is  no  record  evidence  extant  of  the  fact.  There 
upon  he  immediately  replenished  his  stock  of  clothing, 
—  purchasing  "a  piece  of  cloth  for  a  jacket,  price  £4, 
155;  buttons,  etc.,  35."  (See  Note  XX,  following.) 


544       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE  XX. 

ADDITIONAL    EXTRACTS    FROM    CLARK^S    DIARY, 
OCT.    14 NOV.    22,    1777. 

The  following  extracts  include  the  entries  made 
by  Clark  on  his  way  to  Williamsburg,  after  leaving  the 
Wilderness  Road: 

"Oct.  14. —  Left  Capt.  Pawling;  marched  15  miles. 

"Oct.  15. —  Crossed  Powell's  river;  marched  20 
miles ;  camped  on  the  south  side  of  Powell's  mountain. 

"Oct.  16. —  Got  to  the  'rye  cocks', —  9  miles. 

"Oct.  17. —  [Got]  to  Blackamoore's, —  6  miles. 

"Oct.  18. —  Parted  with  the  company;  lodged  at 
More's  fort, —  20  miles. 

"Oct.  19. —  Lodged  at  Capt.  Kincaid's,  22  miles. 

"Oct.  20. —  Crossed  Clinch  mountain ;  met  Mr. 
Maulding;  and  heard  from  my  friends;  lodged  at 
Col.  Campbell's, —  24  miles. 

"Oct.  21. —  Lodged  at  Jasper  Kindser's ;  got  my 
horse  shod  on  the  way ;  breakfast  and  feed,  is,  3d., — 
22  miles. 

"Oct.  22. —  Cloudy  morning,  no  rain ;  lodged  at 
Sawyer's  ;  expenses  is.  3d., —  28  miles. 

"Oct.  23. —  Falling  in  company  with  Capt.  Camp 
bell,  an  agreeable  companion,  we  travelled  33  miles; 
lodged  at  Cook's ;  poor-  fare ;  expenses  6s.  6d. 

"Oct.  24. —  Sold  my  gun  to  Mr.  Love  [for]  £15; 
swapped  horses  with  I.  Love;  gave  £7,  IDS.  boot; 
lodged  at  H.  Neelie's,  25  miles. 

"Oct.  25. —  Received  a  letter  from  Capt.  Bowman, 
informing  me  that  he  had  an  order  of  court  to  carry 
salt  to  Kentucky ;  .  .  .  .  lodged  at  Botetourt,  — 
25  miles:  412  miles  from  Harrodsburg. 


PIISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST.,  ETC.       545 

"Oct.  26. —  Rain,  staid  at  Lockhart's  tavern. 

"Oct.  27. —  Rain;  expenses  £i.  45. 

"Oct.  28. —  Rain ;  started  after  breakfast ;  rained 
slowly  all  day;  lodged  at  Bartlett's,  expenses  45., — 
25  miles. 

"Oct.  29. —  Parted  with  my  companion,  Capt. 
Campbell ;  lodged  at  J.  McClung's ;  55., —  28  miles. 

"Oct.  30. —  Crossed  the  Blue  Ridge ;  lodged  at 
Black's  at  foot  of  the  mountain;  55., —  23  miles. 

"Oct.  31. —  Bought  a  pair  of  shoes  in  Charlotts- 
ville;  lodged  at  .  .  .  , —  35  miles — (15  miles 
from  Charlottsville). 

"Saturday,  Nov.  i. —  Got  to  my  father's  at  about 
10  o'clock  at  night  —  all  well  —  55  miles:  in  the 
whole,  620  miles  from  Harrodsburg. 

"Nov.  2. —  Staid  at  my  father's. 

"Nov.  3. —  Started  for  Williamsburg ;  lodged  at 
Mr.  Gwathmey's, —  40  miles. 

"Nov.  4. —  Lodged  at  Warren's ;  is.  6d. —  29  miles. 

"Nov.  5. —  Got  to  Williamsburg;  lodged  at  Ander 
son's  ;  had  a  confirmation  of  Burgoyne's  surrender. 

"Nov.  6. —  Bought  a  ticket  in  the  State  Lottery, 
£3,  number  10,693,  first  class. 

"Nov.  7. —  Went  to  the  auditors ;  laid  before  them 
the  Kentucky  accounts ;  they  refused  to  settle  them 
without  the  consent  of  the  Council. 

"Nov.  8. —  Got  an  arder  from  the  Council  to  settle 
them. 

"Nov.  9. —  Sunday,  went  to  church. 

"Nov.  10. —  Passed  the  accounts  with  the  auditors, 
except  my  own,  which  they  refused  to  settle  without 
the  consent  of  the  Council. 
as 


546       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"Nov.  1 8. —  Settled  with  the  auditors ;  drew  the 
money  of  the  treasurer,  £726;  bought  a  piece  of  cloth 
for  a  jacket,  price  £4.  155.;  buttons,  etc.,  35. 

"Nov.  19. —  Left  Williamsburg  after  breakfast  — 
expenses  £9.  i8s. ;  lodged  at  Warren's. 

"Nov.  20. —  Got  to  Mr.  Gwathmey's, —  expenses, 
135. 

"Nov.  21. —  Staid  at  Gwathmey's. 

"Nov.  22. —  Came  to  my  father's." 


NOTE    XXL 

CONCERNING   CLARIS   PURPOSE   IN   LEAVING   KENTUCKY 
IN    1777. 

Most  historians  who  have  written  of  Clark's  re 
solve,  made  in  the  summer  of  1777,  to  return  over 
the  mountains  from  Kentucky,  have  concluded  his 
object  was  to  try  to  induce,  if  possible,  the  Virginia 
authorities  to  undertake  the  conquest  of  the  Illinois. 
Now,  in  his  Memoir,  he  does  not  state  in  so  many 
words  that  the  object  of  his  leaving  Kentucky  for 
Williamsburg,  in  the  fall  of  the  year  just  mentioned, 
was  to  promote  an  expedition  against  that  country, 
but  such  is  the  fair  inference  to  be  drawn  from  what 
he  says : 

"The  commandants  of  the  different  towns  of  the 
Illinois  and  Wabash,  I  knew  were  busily  engaged  in 
exciting  the  Indians.  Their  reduction  became  my 
first  object  —  expecting  probably  that  it  might  open 
a  field  for  further  action."  Following  this,  he  mentions 
the  sending  of  the  "two  young  hunters"  to  those 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      547 

places  (including,  as  he  says,  the  Wabash  towns  as 
well  as  the  Illinois)  "as 'spies,  with  proper  instruc 
tions  for  their  conduct,  to  prevent  suspicion."  "Neither 
did  they,"  he  adds,  "nor  any  one  in  Kentucky  ever 
konw  my  design  until  it  was  ripe  for  execution.  They 
returned  to  Harrodstown  with  all  the  information  I 
could  reasonably  have  expected."  Then  he  recites 
briefly  what  the  two  "spies"  reported;  following  it 
by  declaring  that  when  he  left  Kentucky  he  saw 
plainly  that  every  eye  was  turned  toward  him  as  if 
expecting  some  stroke  in  their  favor  (see  Dillon's 
Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp.  118,  119).  Then  he  adds: 
"Some  doubted  my  return,  expecting  I  would  join  the 
army  in  Virginia.  I  left  them  with  reluctance  promis 
ing  them  that  I  would  certainly  return  to  their  as 
sistance,  which  I  had  predetermined." 

In  the  foregoing  there  are  several  erroneous  state 
ments.  Rocheblave  in  the  Illinois  and  Abbott  at  Vin- 
cennes  were  not  busily  engaged  in  exciting  the  In 
dians  against  the  Americans.  Before  sending  the  two 
"spies"  on  their  journey,  Clark  had  not  planned  an 
undertaking  for  the  reduction  of  the  different  towns 
of  the  Illinois  and  Wabash;  nor  were  his  "spies" 
sent  "to  those  places,"  but  only  to  Kaskaskia.  He 
had  no  design  of  conquest  while  in  Kentucky  to  keep 
from  the  people  there  which,  in  the  future,  it  was  in 
tended  by  him  should,  if  possible,  ripen  into  execu 
tion.  He  had  formed  an  opinion,  simply,  as  already 
explained,  that  the  conquest  of  the  Illinois  was  feas 
ible  —  that  was  all.  When  he  left  Kentucky  he  was 
not  burning  with  an  ambition  to  lead  an  expedition 
across  the  Ohio,  either  to  the  Illinois  towns  or  to 
Vincennes  upon  the  Wabash.  On  the  contrary,  he 


548       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

declared,  as  already  shown,  he  would  accept  no  com 
mand  whatever  unless  he  should  find  a  very  great  call 
for  troops  and  his  country  in  danger. 

Now,  even  before  the  Memoir  had  been  used  by 
any  historian,  Marshall,  one  of  the  earliest  Kentucky 
writers,  said :  "The  possibility  of  making  conquests 
so  important  to  the  future  security  of  the  western 
boundary  of  the  state  derived  considerable  proba 
bility  and  vivacity  from  the  ardent  and  confident  rep 
resentations  of  the  Mr.  Clark,  whose  name  has  been 
previously  mentioned  as  being  in  Kentucky  the  pre 
ceding  year  [1776].  While  there  it  appeared  that 
he,  affected  by  the  scene  of  hostility  in  which  he  found 
himself,  and  hence  induced  to  reflect  on  its  causes 
and  the  means  of  removing  the  effects,  had  instituted 
inquiries  into  the  situation  and  condition  of  the  In 
dians  and  the  posts  most  contiguous  to  Kentucky  — 
about  which  he  had  received  extensive  information, 
and  which  he,  prompted  by  an  ardent  passion  for 
military  fame,  propagated  with  the  zeal  of  one  who 
had  a  presentiment  of  being  employed.  It  was  cer 
tainly  his  desire.  And  no  less  certain  that  his  infor 
mation  and  representations  contributed  much  to  excite 
and  confirm  the  public  sentiment  in  favor  of  an  enter 
prise  which  was  probably  suggested  by  him,  but 
thought  both  hazardous  and  eventful  by  those  who 
could  alone  authorize  its  execution.  [History  of  Ken~ 
tucky,  vol.  71,  p.  66]."  But  all  this  was  the  out 
growth  of  the  knowledge  possessed  by  that  writer  as 
to  the  outcome  of  Clark's  undertaking. 

A  later  Kentucky  historian  declares :  "So  strongly 
was  he  [Clark]  impressed  with  the  importance  of 
this  movement,  that  in  the  summer  of  '77,  he  had 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       549 

dispatched  two  spies  of  the  names  of  Moore  and  Dunn 
[Linn],  to  reconoitre  the  situation  of  these  remote 
parts  of  the  enemy.  These  emissaries  reported  great 
activity  on  part  of  the  militia,  as  well  as  the  most 
extended  encouragement  to  the  Indians  in  their  bar 
barous  depredations  upon  the  Kentucky  frontier;  yet, 
notwithstanding  the  enemy  had  essayed  every  art  of 
misrepresentation  to  prejudice  the  French  inhabitants 
against  the  Virginians,  by  telling  them  that  these 
frontier  people  were  more  shocking  barbarians  than 
the  savages  themselves,  still  the  spies  reported  strong 
traces  of  affection  for  the  Americans,  among  some  of 
the  inhabitants.  Not  that  the  spies,  or  anybody  else, 
were  acquainted  with  the  contemplated  expedition  till 
it  was  ripe  to  be  laid  before  the  governor  and  coun 
cil  of  Virginia.  To  this  body  he  determined  to  submit 
the  matter;  when,  on  the  ist  of  October,  1777,  he 
left  Kentucky."  .  .  .  (Butler:  History  of  Ken 
tucky,  p.  46.) 

But,  when  this  was  written  its  author  had  not  seen 
Clark's  letter  to  Mason,  which  so  conclusively  shows 
that  his  resolution  to  "to  submit  the  matter,"  was 
not  fixed  upon  until  sometime  after  his  arrival  in  Wil- 
liamsburg.  And  it  may  here  be  well  to  notice,  also, 
that  "these  emissaries"  did  not  report  "extended  en 
couragement  to  the  Indians  in  their  barbarous  depre 
dations  upon  the  Kentucky  frontier."  It  will  be  seen 
that  while  Butler  essays  to  follow  Clark  in  his  Memoir, 
he  at  the  same  time  adds  unwarrantable  statements. 

Some  years  after  the  appearance  of  the  foregoing, 
the  following  statement  was  published  by  another  Ken 
tucky  writer  who  gives  as  a  prelude  the  convictions 
of  Clark  as  to  the  purposes  of  the  British  commanders 


550       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

at  their  posts  beyond  the  Ohio;  of  their  instigating 
the  savages  against  Kentucky ;  and  of  the  necessity 
of  attacking  their  stronghold  :  "With  these  convictions 
deeply  impressed  upon  his  [Clark's]  mind,  he  deter 
mined  to  recommend  to  the  Governor  and  Council  of 
Virginia,  an  immediate  expedition  into  Illinois.  Not 
sufficiently  assured  of  a  favorable  reception  of  his 
views,  in  his  absence  from  the  seat  of  government, 
he  left  Kentucky  on  the  first  of  October,  1777,  and 
repaired  in  person  to  Williamsburgh,  to  enforce  by 
argument,  and  if  need  be  by  entreaty,  the  policy  of 
his  scheme." — Morehead's  Address,  pp.  60,  61.  That 
•writer,  too,  had  not,  it  is  evident,  seen  Clark's  letter 
to  Mason.  (See  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
compare,  in  particular,  in  this  connection,  pp.  21,  22). 
In  Coleman's  article  in  Harper's  Magazine,  vol. 
XXII,  p.  789,  it  is  stated  that  "he  [Clark],  on  his 
own  account,  sent  two  spies  to  Kaskaskia  and  Vin- 
cennes  whose  reports  were  at  once  favorable  and 
alarming.  Favorable,  because  he  learned  that  a  neg 
ligent  guard  was  kept  over  the  fortifications,  and 
that  the  sentiment  of  the  French  inhabitants  were 
secretly  not  at  all  hostile  to  the  American  cause. 
Alarming,  because  he  was  informed  that  preparations 
were  already  on  foot  for  a  combined  invasion  of  Ken 
tucky  by  the  British  and  Indians,  to  be  commenced 
the  next  summer.  This  was  to  be  anticpated,  and 
Clarke  [sic.]  resolved  to  hasten  once  more  to  Vir 
ginia  and  lay  his  plans  before  the  Governor  and  Leg 
islature.  For  this  purpose  he  set  forth  on  his  third 
journey  through  the  forest,  which  lay  unbroken  by  a 
single  habitation  between  Licking  River  and  the  fron 
tiers  of  Virginia.  The  people  saw  him  depart  with 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      551 

regret  and  fear.  Knowing  his  great  qualities  so  well 
themselves,  they  dreaded  lest  such  inducements  might 
be  held  out  as  would  tempt  him  to  remain  in  the 
East,  or  that  the  threatened  storm  might  burst  upon 
them  in  his  absence." 

In  reply  to  the  last,  it  may  be  said  (i)  that  Clark 
did  not  send  his  two  "spies"  to  Vincennes  at  all;  (2) 
that  he  did  not  learn  that  the  French  inhabitants  were, 
secretly,  not  at  all  hostile  to  the  American  cause;  (3) 
that  he  was  not  informed  that  preparations  were 
already  on  foot  for  a  combined  invasion  of  Kentucky 
by  the  British  and  Indians,  to  be  commenced  the  next 
summer;  (4)  that  Clark  did  not  resolve  to  hasten 
once  more  to  Virginia  and  lay  his  plans  before  the 
Governor  and  Legislature;  and  (5)  that  he  did  not 
for  that  purpose  set  forth  on  his  third  journey  through 
the  forest  for  Williamsburg.  That  some  of  the  set 
tlers  saw  him  depart  "with  regret"  is  probably  true ; 
but  none  saw  him  go  with  "fear."  None  of  them 
"dreaded  lest  such  inducements  might  be  held  out  as 
would  tempt  him  to  remain  in  the  East,"  for  the 
reason  that  it  must  have  been  known  he  did  not  in 
tend  to  return. 

Now,  many  other  writers  (those  who  have  read 
but  not  sufficiently  considered  Clark's  words  to  Ma 
son)  have  been  entrapped  by  his  Memoir.  Of  these, 
no  one  expresses  himself  with  more  directness  than 
one  of  the  latest  to  record  the  doings  of  Clark  in 
1777,  already  cited  in  this  connection: 

"On  the  first  of  October,  having  matured  his 
plans  for  the  Illinois  campaign,  he  [Clark]  left  for 
Virginia  to  see  if  he  could  get  the  government  to 
help  him  put  them  into  execution."  (Roosevelt — The 


552       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Winning  of  the  West,  Vol.  II,  p.  17.)  Again:  "Clark- 
knew  he  could  get  from  among  his  fellow-settlers  [in 
Kentucky]  some  men  peculiarly  suited  for  his  pur 
pose  [of  attacking  the  Illinois]  ;  but  he  also  realized 
that  he  would  have  to  bring  the  body  of  his  force 
from  Virginia.  Accordingly,  he  decided  to  lay  the 
case  before  Patrick  Henry,  then  Governor  of  the  State 
of  which  Kentucky  was  then  only  a  frontier  county." 
(Roosevelt,  in  the  Vol.  last  cited,  p.  34.) 

Another  writer,  who  has  evidently  noticed  the  var 
iance  between  Clark's  declaration  in  his  letter  to  Mason 
and  that  given  in  his  Memoir,  cautiously  says : 

"With  this  information  [that  obtained  from  the 
two  men  from  Kaskaskia,  sent  from  Kentucky]  Clark 
set  out  for  Williamsburg  in  the  fall  of  1777,  having 
for  his  main  object  the  settlement  of  his  accounts  in 
reference  to  the  Kentucky  militia,  of  which  he  was 
the  commander.  Some  of  the  Kentuckians  looked  to 
him  for  an  enterprise  for  their  relief,  others  expected 
him  to  join  the  army  in  Virginia,  and  never  to  return 
to  them.  He  left  the  country  reluctantly,  and  with 
promise  of  return  to  their  assistance."  (Henry's 
Patrick  Henry,  vol.  I,  p.  582.  Compare,  in  this  con 
nection,  Appleton's  Encyclopedia  of  American  Biog 
raphy,  art.  "George  Rogers  Clark,"  by  Draper.) 

A  Kentucky  author  we  have  frequently  mentioned, 
declares  that  hitherto  [that  is,  previous  to  Clark's 
arrival  at  Williamsburg,  in  November,  1777],  the  war 
in  Kentucky  had  been  carried  on  by  the  perseverance 
and  the  gallantry  of  the  backwoodsmen  themselves, 
with  little  assistance  from  the  power  of  Virginia,  ex 
cepting  that  which  was  procured  by  the  devotion  of 
Messrs.  Clark  and  Jones.  The  tremendous  struggle 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       553 

of  the  Revolution,  involving  everything  dear  to  a 
free  and  generous  people,  demanded  all  the  energies 
of  the  Commonwealth.  The  State  had  not  disposable 
means  to  act  on  so  remote  a  frontier."  (Butler:  His 
tory  of  Kentucky,  p.  45.) 

But  before  Clark  started  on  his  journey  from  the 
Kentucky  settlements,  Captain  Smith,  as  we  have  seen, 
arrived  at  Boonesborough  with  forty-eight  Virginia 
militia  to  assist  the  settlers  in  repelling  savage  ag 
gressions  and  Captain  Montgomery  reached  Logan's 
fort  with  thirty-eight;  besides  these,  he  soon  met 
fifty  more  men  under  Captain  Watkins,  on  their  way 
to  Boonesborough;  so  that,  it  is  clear,  Virginia  was 
then  protecting,  with  at  least  a  respectable  force,  "her 
remote  frontier;"  and  that  then  the  war  was  not 
carried  on  by  the  backwoodsmen  alone.  It  is  the 
testimony  of  Governor  Henry,  as  hereafter  seen,  that 
250  men  had  been  ordered  by  Virginia  from  more 
interior  counties  of  the  State,  to  the  county  of  Ken 
tucky  for  the  protection  of  the  settlements  there. 

"The  government  of  Virginia  [did  not]  appear," 
continues  the  writer  just  quoted,"  to  have  been  dis 
tinctly  aware  of  the  important  diversion  of  the  Indian 
force  which  might  be  effected  by  supporting  the  exer 
tions  of  Kentucky.  As  little  did  she  perceive  the  rich 
acquisitions  offered  to  her  military  ambition  in  the 
British  posts  in  the  Western  country.  Yet  every  In 
dian  engaged  on  the  frontier  of  Kentucky  was  saved 
to  the  nearer  frontier  of  the  parent  state.  These  com 
bined  views  acquired  greater  weight  with  the  progress 
of  the  Revolution,  and  the  increasing  population  of 
Kentucky ;  they  were  particularly  aided  by  the  ardent 
and  impressive  representations  of  Major  Clark.  He 


554       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

had  witnessed  the  rise  and  growth  of  this  section  of 
the  country  from  its  earliest  buddings;  he  had  pene 
trated  its  condition  and  its  relations  with  the  in 
stinctive  genius  which  stamped  him  the  most  con 
summate  of  the  western  commanders.  He  had  seen 
at  a  glance  that  the  sources  of  the  Indian  devasta 
tions  were  to  be  found  in  the  British  possessions  of 
Detroit,  St.  Vincents  [Vincennes]  and  Kaskaskia.  The 
heart-rending  ravages  spread  by  the  barbarians  of  the 
western  hemisphere  .  .  .  were  stimulated  by  the 
ammunition,  arms  and  clothing  supplied  at  these  mili 
tary  stations.  If  they  could  be  taken,  the  streams 
of  hostility  which  had  overflown  Kentucky  with 
horrors  would  be  dried  up  and  a  counter  influence 
established  over  the  savages."* 

But  the  assertions  here  made  are  by  far  too  sweep 
ing  in  their  character.  Virginia  fully  appreciated 
what  would  be  "the  rich  acquisitions  offered  to  her 
military  ambition,"  by  the  capture  of  the  British  posts 
in  the  Western  country.  Vincennes  and  particularly 
Kaskaskia  had  done  little  to  encourage  aggressions  of 
the  Indians  against  Kentucky;  and  even  Clark  him 
self  believed  that  more  mischief  was  concocted  in  these 
places  than  there  really  was.  The  fact  was  the  chief 
source  of  trouble  was  Detroit,  as  the  General  Govern 
ment  and  the  Virginia  authorities  well  knew,  and  as 
was  known  by  Clark  himself ;  nevertheless,  could  Kas 
kaskia  be  taken,  much  good,  it  was  evident,  would  be 
accomplished.  But  an  expedition  to  reduce  the  Illi 
nois  was  not  to  be  recommended  simply  for  the  bet 
ter  protection  of  the  Kentucky  settlements.  Clark's 
idea  was  that  it  would  redound,  if  successful,  to  the 

*  Ibid. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       555 

greater  security  of  the  whole  Western  frontier,  es 
pecially  as  it  might  lead  to  the  conquest  of  Vincennes 
and  Detroit. 

A  recent  writer  (E.  A.  Bryan,  in  Magazine  of 
American  History,  vol.  XXI,  p.  399)  not  only  sees 
in  the  sending  of  the  two  spies  a  purpose  to  reduce 
Vincennes  as  well  as  the  Illinois  villages,  on  part  of 
Clark,  but  dispatches  the  latter  to  Virginia  to  lay  the 
matter  before  the  Virginia  governor.  These  are  his 
words : 

"The  name  of  George  Rogers  Clark,  misrepre 
sented,  belittled,  maligned  though  it  has  been,  is  as 
fair  a  name  as  adorns  the  roll  of  our  Revolutionary 
heroes.  He  was  a  man  of  strong  will,  of  lofty  imagi 
nation,  of  unconquerable  courage,  of  great  daring  com 
bined  with  wonderful  shrewdness,  a  lover  of  freedom 
and  of  his  native  land.  A  Virginian  by  birth,  soon 
after  attaining  his  majority  he  had  cast  his  fortunes 
with  the  handful  of  settlers  in  Kentucky.  It  was  here 
that  the  Indian  massacres,  which  had  been  incited 
by  British  gold,  led  him  to  the  conviction  that  Post 
Vincennes  must  be  conquered,  not  only  for  the  sake  of 
controlling  the  Indians  and  protecting  the  frontier, 
but  also  for  the  sake  of  wresting  this  vast  and  fertile 
territory  from  England.  Having  dispatched  two  spies 
to  learn  the  temper  of  the  French  and  Indian  popu 
lation  of  the  posts,  and  to  ascertain  the  strength  of 
the  forts  and  garrisons,  he  goes  to  Virginia,  lays  the 
matter  before  Governor  Patrick  Henry,  who,  as  does 
also  Jefferson,  sees  the  far-reaching  importance  of  the 
scheme." 

The  whole  matter  may  be  summed  up  in  this  way : 
Clark  being  fully  advised  of  the  "alarming  situation" 


556       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

—  that  "the  Americans  were  as  sorely  pressed  by  the 
English  from  the  seaside  as  they  were  by  the  Indians 
from  the  western  wilderness,"  as  a  recent  writer  hap 
pily  expresses  it  —  he  was  fully  imbued  with  the 
idea  that  a  decisive  movement  across  the  Ohio  would 
be  a  most  opportune  undertaking;  he  would,  there 
fore,  encourage  it. 

In  after  years,  with  a  treacherous  memory  to  guide 
him,  his  "design,"  he  says,  was  made  known  because 
Burgoyrie's  army  had  been  captured  and  things  seemed 
to  wear  a  pleasing  aspect  [see  his  Memoir — Dillon's 
Indiana  (Ed.  of  1859),  p.  119].  Many  writers  have 
copied  this  error. 

"The  capture  of  Burgoyne,  however,  put  a  dif 
ferent  aspect  upon  affairs,  and  induced  him  [Clark] 
to  suggest  to  a  few  leading  men  —  George  Wythe, 
George  Mason,  and  Thomas  Jefferson  —  the  plan  of 
attacking  the  British  posts  in  the  Illinois  country." 
(Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  I,  p.  583.)  As  a  mat 
ter  of  fact,  however,  it  was  according  to  Clark  in  his 
letter  to  Mason,  not  Burgoyne's  surrender  that  fixed 
his  (Clark's)  resolution  to  promote  the  expedition, 
but,  as  before  mentioned,  the  desperation  of  the  British 
on  the  seaboard  and  of  their  savage  allies  in  the  West. 

In  his  Memoir  he  states:  "On  the  tenth  of  De 
cember  I  communicated  my  design  to  Governor 
Henry;"  yet,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  his  suggestion  was 
not  made  to  the  latter,  but,  as  may  be  premised,  "to 
a  few  gentlemen,"  who  laid  the  subject  before  the 
Governor. 

That'  any  one  while  denouncing  Clark's  Memoir 
should  adopt,  and  even  add  to  its  errors  in  writing 
of  the  expedition  planned  against  the  Illinois,  is,  to 


HISTORY  OP  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       557 

say  the  least,  very  strange.     But  this  is  what  occurs 
in  the  following  extract : 

"After  a  week's  rest  [at  his  father's  house],  he 
[Clark]  went  back  to  the  capital  [Williamsburg], 
laid  his  plans  before  Patrick  Henry,  and  urged  their 
adoption  with  fiery  enthusiasm.  ( Roosevelt  —  The 
Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  II,  p.  36.)  And  that  author 
previously  declares  that  he  (Clark)  had  "decided" 
before  leaving  Kentucky  "to  lay  the  case  before  Pat 
rick  Henry"  (same  vol.,  p.  34),  and  that  "Clark 
knew  he  could  get  from  among  his  fellow-settlers 
[in  Kentucky],  some  men  peculiarly  suited  for  his 
purpose,  but  he  also  realized  that  he  would  have  to 
bring  the  body  of  his  force  from  Virginia." 


NOTE    XXII. 

ACT  OF  THE  GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  OF  VIRGINIA  AUTHOR 
IZING  AN  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  WESTERN  ENEMIES 

(under  which  Clark  organized  his  Undertaking 
against  Kaskaskia),  passed  at  the  October  ses 
sion,  1777.  (See  Hening's  Virginia  Statutes  at 
Large,  vol.  IX,  pp.  374,  375). 

An  act  for  better  securing  the  commonwealth,  and  for 
the  farther  protection  and  defence  thereof. 

For  more  effectually  securing  the  commonwealth 
against  the  designs  and  attempts  of  certain  evil- 
minded  persons,  now  or  lately  in  the  counties  here 
inafter  mentioned,  who,  lost  to  all  sentiments  of 
virtue,  honor  or  regard  for  their  country,  have  been 
induced  to  aid  the  enemy: 


558       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  General  Assembly,  That 
Samuel  Washington,  Gabriel  lones,  and  Joseph  Reed, 
esquires,  commissioners  appointed  by  the  United  States 
of  America  in  Congress  assembled  to  repair  to  Fort 
Pitt  in  order  to  investigate  the  rise,  progress,  and  ex 
tent  of  the  disaffection  in  that  quarter,  or  such  other 
persons  as  shall  be  appointed  in  their  room  and  shall 
undertake  to  execute  the  office,  be  authorized  and  em 
powered  and  they  are  hereby  authorized  and  em 
powered,  at  any  time  within  six  months  after  the 
passing  of  this  act,  to  apprehend  such  inhabitants 
of  the  counties  of  Ohio,  Monongalia  and  Yohogania 
as  shall  appear  to  the  said  commissioners  to  have  been 
concerned  in  any  conspiracy  or  plot  against  the  said 
states,  or  any  or  either  of  them,  and  to  deliver  the 
offenders  over  to  the  proper  civil  officer  to  be  prose 
cuted  according  to  law.  And  to  provide  for  the  farther 
protection  and  defence  of  the  frontiers,  Be  it  farther 
enacted,  That  the  governor,  with  the  advice  of  the 
privy  council,  may  order  such  part  of  the  militia  as 
may  be  most  convenient,  and  as  they  shall  judge 
necessary,  consistently  with  the  safety  of  the  com 
monwealth,  to  act  in  conjunction  with  any  troops  on 
any  expedition  which  may  be  undertaken  by  desire 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  in  congress  assem 
bled,  against  any  of  our  western  enemies ;  and  also 
that  the  governor,  with  advice  of  the  privy  council, 
at  any  time  within  nine  months  after  the  passing  of 
this  act,  may  empower  a  number  of  volunteers,  not 
exceeding  six  hundred,  to  march  against  and  attack 
any  of  our  social  enemies,  and  may  appoint  the  proper 
officers  and  give  the  necessary  orders  for  the  expedi 
tion. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       559 

NOTE    XXIII. 
GOV.  HENRY'S  ORDER  TO  "SECURE"  LIXX  AND  MOORE. 

The  whole  clause,  in  which  "the  two  men  from 
Kaskaskia"  are  mentioned  by  Governor  Henry  in  his 
Private  Instructions  to  Clark,  reads  as  follows:  "For 
the  transportation  of  the  troops,  prisoners,  etc.,  down 
the  Ohio,  you  are  to  apply  to  the  commanding  officer 
at  Fort  Pitt  for  boats ;  and  during  the  whole  trans 
action  you  are  to  take  especial  care  to  keep  the  true 
destination  of  your  force  secret.  Its  success  depends 
upon  this.  Orders  are  therefore  given  to  Captain 
Smith  to  secure  the  two  men  from  Kaskaskia.  Sim 
ilar  conduct  will  be  proper  in  similar  cases."  Who 
Captain  Smith  was.  and  why  he  was  selected  for  that 
particular  service  will  soon  appear. 

That,  ''to  secure  the  two  men  from  Kaskaskia," 
implied  that  they  were  to  be  arrested,  there  can  be 
no  doubt;  but  this  does  not  necessarily  convey  the 
idea  that  Clark  had  actually  communicated  to  Linn 
and  Moore  any  particular  reason  for  sending  them 
to  the  Illinois  and  that  he  had  informed  Governor 
Henry  what  that  reason  was.  But  the  latter  could  not 
fail  to  see  that  both  these  men  might,  upon  learning 
that  Clark  was  on  his  way  down  the  Ohio  with  a 
considerable  force,  conclude  he  was  going  on  an  ex 
pedition  to  the  country  they  had  visited  as  "spies ;" 
and  for  fear  their  suspicions  might  be  mentioned  in 
the  Kentucky  settlements,  it  was  thought  best  by  the 
Virginia  governor,  to  have  them  "secured." 


560       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE    XXIV. 

ERRORS  IN  THE  PRIVATE  INSTRUCTIONS  GIVEN  BY  GOV. 
HENRY  TO  CLARK,,  AS  FOUND  IN  "CLARK*S  CAM 
PAIGN  IN  THE  ILLINOIS,"  pp.  96,  97. 

In  second  paragraph,  for  "expectation"  read  "ex 
pedition  ;"  in  third  paragraph,  for  "&c,"  read  "& ;" 
in  fourth  paragraph,  for  "way,"  read  "ways;"  in 
fifth  paragraph,  for  "of  Ohio,"  read  "of  the  Ohio." 

The  Private  Instructions,  as  printed  in  Monnette's 
History  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  vol.  II,  p.  41 5n,  are 
with  less  errors  than  are  to  be  found  in  the  document 
given  in  the  work  above  mentioned.  In  Henry's  Pat 
rick  Henry,  they  are  printed  with  literal  exactness  as 
to  capitals,  etc.,  which  Butler  does  not  attempt. 


NOTE    XXV. 

CONCERNING  THE  DISCRETIONARY  POWER  GIVEN   CLARK. 

The  concluding  words  of  the  following  from  Ban 
croft's  History  of  the  United  States  (ed.  of  1885) 
vol.  v,  p.  310.,  indicating  that  Clark  was  given  a  dis 
cretionary  power  to  attack  "the  British  dominion 
on  ...  the  Wabash,"  is  misleading,  and  is 
doubtless  the  result  of  that  historian  following  Clark's 
Memoir  (the  italicising  is  mine)  : 

"In  the  latter  part  of  1777  Clark  took  leave  of 
the  woodsmen  of  Kentucky  and  departed  for  the  East. 
To  a  few  at  Williamsburg,  of  whom  no  one  showed 
more  persistent  zeal  than  George  Mason  and  Thomas 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       561 

Jefferson,  he  proposed  a  secret  expedition  to  the 
Illinois.  Patrick  Henry,  the  governor,  made  the  plan 
'his  own,  and,  at  his  instance,  the  house  of  delegates, 
by  a  vote  of  which  'few  knew  the  intent,'  empowered 
him  to  aid  'any  expedition  against  their  western 
enemy.'  On  the  second  of  January,  1778,  Clark  re 
ceived  from  the  governor  and  council  a  supply  of 
money,  liberty  to  levy  troops  in  any  county  of  Vir 
ginia,  and  written  and  verbal  instructions  clothing 
him  with  large  discretionary  authority  to  attack  the 
British  dominion  on  the  Illinois  and  the  W abash." 


NOTE    XXVI. 

GEORGE  WYTHE,  GEORGE  MASON  AND  THOMAS  JEFFER- 
SON'S  PLEDGE  TO  CLARK  ON  THE  30  OF  JANUARY, 
1778. 

The  letter  written  by  George  Wythe,  George 
Mason,  and  Thomas  Jefferson  (the  first  mentioned, 
speaker,  and  the  others,  members,  of  the  House  of 
Delegates),  pledging  themselves  in  exerting  their  in 
fluence  to  obtain  from  the  legislature  of  Virginia  a 
bounty  of  three  hundred  acres  of  land  for  each  re 
cruit  in  the  expedition,  in  the  event  of  its  success, 
has  been  lost.  The  words  of  Clark,  in  his  Memoir 
(Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp.  119,  120),  are 
—  "as  an  encouragement  to  those  who  would  engage 
in  said  service  [meaning  the  service  against  the  Illi 
nois  towns]  an  instrument  of  writing  was  signed, 
wherein  those  gentlemen  promised  to  use  their  in 
fluence  to  procure  from  the  assembly  three  hundred 

36 


562       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

acres  of  land  for  each  in  case  of  success."  But,  in 
this  writing,  the  real  object  of  the  expedition  could 
not  have  been  mentioned,  else  the  secret  would  have 
been  disclosed  as  to  what  service  was  expected  of  those 
who  enlisted. 

Roosevelt  (The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  II, 
p.  37)  says  the  three  gentlemen  "agreed  in  writing 
to  do  their  best  to  induce  the  Virginia  Legislature  to 
grant  to  each  of  the  adventurers  three  hundred  acres 
of  the  conquered  land,  if  they  were  successful."  (The 
italicising  is  mine).  To  have  made  such  an  explana 
tion  would  have  disclosed  the  secret  as  to  the  des 
tination  of  the  expediton.  What  Butler  says  (and  he 
had  the  letter  in  his  possession  doubtless  when  he 
wrote)  is  this:  "The  result  of  these  deliberations 
[with  Clark  as  to  the  plan  of  attacking  the  Illinois] 
was,  a  full  approbation  of  the  scheme,  and  in  order 
to  encourage  the  men,  those  patriotic  gentlemen 
[George  Wythe,  George  Mason  and  Thomas  Jeffer 
son],  like  worthy  sons  of  Old  Virginia,  pledged  them 
selves  by  an  instrument  of  writing  in  case  of  success, 
to  exert  their  influence  to  obtain  from  the  Legislature 
a  bounty  of  three  hundred  acres  of  land  for  every 
person  in  the  expedition  [History  of  Kentucky,  p. 

47.]" 

In  a  recent  work  is  to  be  found  the  following: 
"It  was  during  this  winter  of  1777-8  that  Col.  George 
Rogers  Clark  visited  Williamsburg,  and  in  interviews 
with  Governor  Henry  and  the  leading  men  of  the 
Assembly,  the  famous  Illinois  campaign  was  projected. 
George  Mason  was  an  intimate  and  revered  friend 
of  the  gallant  young  soldier,  and  he  was  one  of  the 
leaders  with  whom  Henrv  conferred  on  the  subject 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      563 

of  Clark's  plans.  A  letter  was  written  by  George 
Wythe,  George  Mason  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  on  the 
3d  of  January,  1778,  in  which  these  gentlemen  pledged 
themselves,  in  case  of  the  success  of  the  expedition, 
'to  exert  their  influence  to  obtain  from  the  legisla 
ture  a  bounty  of  three  hundred  acres  of  land  for  every 
person  in  the  expedition  [Butler's  History  of  Ken 
tucky,'  p.  47  (and  foot-note)].  The  papers  of  G.  R. 
Clark  were  in  1834,  in  possession  of  his  brother, 
General  William  Clark,  and  they  were  used  by  Mann 
Butler  in  his  history  of  Kentucky.  Copies  of  some 
of  these  papers  were  given  by  Butler  to  the  Hon. 
Lyman  C.  Draper  of  Wisconsin,  for  his  contemplated 
biography  of  George  Rogers  Clark.  The  letter  signed 
by  Wythe,  Mason,  and  Jefferson  was,  however,  never 
seen  by  Mr.  Draper."  (Kate  Mason  Rowland's  Life 
of  George  Mason,  vol  I,  p.  290.) 


NOTE    XXVII. 

AS   TO   WILLIAM    IIARROD   AND   WILLIAM    B.    SMITH. 

Although  a  former  resident  of  the  Redstone  coir:- 
try,  William  Harrod  had  been  for  some  time  locate  1 
in  Kentucky,  but  had  now,  for  some  reason  unknown, 
returned  to  the  Monongahela  region.  (As  to  his 
residence  in  Kentucky,  see  Hall's  Romance  of  Western 
History,  p.  384.  Compare,  also :  Monnette's  History 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  vol.  I,  p.  398,) 

Bancroft    [History   of  the    United  States    (ed.   of 

.1885),  vol.  V,  p.  310]   says:     "It  was  probably  there 

[at  Redstone]  that  he  [Clark]  met  with  Captain  Wil- 


564       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Ham  Harrod  and  his  company;"  and  he  (Bancroft) 
gives,  as  authority  for  this  "probability,"  a  MS.  mem 
orandum  of  L.  C.  Draper.  But  it  is  clear,  if  Captain 
Harrod  had  there  a  company,  it  was  the  result  of  his 
recruiting  as  mentioned  by  Clark.  In  any  event,  there 
fore,  to  say  that  the  latter  probably  met  with  Captain 
Harrod  and  his  company  at  Redstone,  conveys  an 
erroneous  impression. 

Clark,  in  his  Memoir,  erroneously  speaks  of  Wil- 
Jiam  B.  Smith  as  "Major."  He  was  only  a  cap 
tain.  He  was  the  one  who  was  ordered  by  Gover 
nor  Henry  "to  secure  the  two  men  from  Kaskaskia," 
as  he  was  expected  to  reach  Kentucky  in  advance 
of  Clark.  Smith  could  not  have  been  told  why  he 
was  to  secure  these  men.  If  he  had  been,  he  would 
have  been  put  in  possession  of  the  secret  as  to  Clark's 
true  destination.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  Clark's 
officers  as  well  as  his  enlisted  men  knew  nothing  of 
the  real  object  of  the  expedition  until  some  time  after. 


NOTE    XXVIII. 

MANN   BUTLER  ON   CLARIES  RECRUITING  TROUBLES. 

[Ante  Chap.  V,  p.  — .] 

Butler  (History  of  Kentucky,  p  48)  says:  "At 
Fort  Pitt  [it  was  at  Redstone],  he  [Clark]  met  with 
some  difficulties  arising  from  the  disputed  dominion, 
which  then  agitated  the  friends  of  Pennsylvania  and 
Virginia ;  many  thought  the  detachment  of  troops  to 
Kentucky  was  a  wanton  dispersion  and  division  of 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       565 

strength.  The  secrecy  of  his  real  destination  and 
the  ostensible  one  of  Kentucky,  led  many  to  declare 
it  better  to  remove  the  Kentuckians  than  weaken  the 
country  by  undertaking  their  defence.  Little  did  these 
objectors  know  the  innate  vigor,  the  indomitable 
energy  of  the  backwoodsmen  of  Kentucky  and  of 
the  West,  when  they  talked  of  removing  them  like  so 
many  chatties."  This  is  certainly  pardonable  in  But 
ler,  being  himself  a  Kentuckian ;  but  only  a  year 
before,  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  it  will  be  remem 
bered,  said  to  an  officer  of  militia  he  was  about  to 
send  out  there,  —  •  "in  case  it  shall  be  judged  im 
possible  to  hold  the  country  .  .  .  they  [the 
militia]  are  to  escort  all  the  people,  with  their  effects 
to  the  nearest  place  of  safety."  (Instruction  of  Gov. 
Henry  to  the  Lieutenant  of  Montgomery  County, 
March  10,  1777.) 


NOTE    XXIX. 

THE    FALLS    OF    THE    OHIO    TO    BE    CLARK'S    FINAL    REN 
DEZVOUS. WHEN    THE   EMBARKATION   TOOK    PLACE 

FROM   REDSTONE. WHO  PROPERLY  TO  SHARE  WITH 

CLARK     THE     CREDIT    OF     PLANNING     THE     EXPEDI 
TION. 

Clark,  in  his  letter  to  Mason  (Clark's  Campaign  in 
the  Illinois,  p  25),  says  he  "set  sail  for  the  Falls  [of 
the  Ohio]"  and  that  he  had  previously  received  let 
ters  from  Captain  Smith,  informing  him  that  he  would 
meet  him  at  that  place.  This  makes  it  certain  that  the 
final  rendezvous  had  been  fixed  upon,  and  that  it  was 
the  Falls. 


566       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

The  Colonel,  it  will  be  noticed,  had  been  in  Red 
stone,  active  in  collecting  men  —  some  of  whom  were 
Pennsylvanians,  but  most  of  them  Virginians  —  for 
over  two  and  a  half  months.  In  his  Memoir,  he  says  it 
was  late  in  May  before  he  could  leave  the  Redstone 
settlement;  but  this  is  certainly  error.  The  date  — 
twelfth  of  May  —  is  sufficiently  corroborated  by  cir 
cumstances  afterward  transpiring,  which  are  spoken  of 
by  the  Colonel  in  his  letter  just  cited. 

"Early  in  the  ensuing  spring,  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
six,  he  [Clark]  embarked,  sole  commander  of  an 
enterprise  wholly  his  own  in  conception  and  plan, 
which  had  been  for  three  years  the  daring  object 
of  his  ambition."  (Harper's  Magazine,  vol.  XXII, 
pp.  789,  790.)  But  the  enterprise,  while  it  was  his 
(Clark's)  own  conception,  was  by  no  means,  as  already 
shown,  wholly  his  own  plan.  Much  of  the  credit  of 
arranging  the  details  of  the  expedition  is  due  Gov. 
Henry  and  his  Council.  To  say  that  the  undertak 
ing  had  been  for  three  years  the  daring  object  of 
Clark's  ambition,  is  stating  for  him  what  he,  at  the 
time,  did  not  claim. 


NOTE    XXX. 

CLARK'S  FORCE  UPON  LEAVING  REDSTONE. 

As  Captains  Bowman  and  Helm  brought  to  the 
Colonel  only  about  thirty-five  men,  he  must  have  ob 
tained  at  Redstone  about  one  hundred  and  fifteen. 
That  the  whole  force  was  formed  into  three  com 
panies,  see  Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  48,  And  the  same  is 
to  be  inferred  from  Hamilton  to  Haldimand  [Sept. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       567 

5],  1778  —  Haldimand  MSS.,  where  a  deserter  gives 
the  information  of  the  arrival  in  Kentucky  of  that 
number,  but  erroneously  states  (designedly  it  may 
be)  that  there  were  seventy  men  in  each  company. 

Singularly  erroneous  is  Monnette's  account  (His 
tory  of  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  vol.  I,  p.  416) 
as  to  Clark's  force  just  before  leaving  Redstone: 

"Selecting  from  his  whole  force  four  companies 
of  picked  men,  under  well-known  captains,  he  [Clark] 
prepared  to  descend  the  [Ohio]  river  upon  the  hazar 
dous  enterprise.  The  companies  were  commanded  by 
Captains  Montgomery,  Bowman,  Helm  and  Harrod." 
But  the  Colonel  was  only  too  glad  to  get  almost  any 
kind  of  recruits,  without  stopping  to  "pick"  them; 
and,  besides,  Captain  Montgomery  was  then  in  Ken 
tucky. 

"Proceeding  to  Pittsburg,  on  Feb.  4,  he  [Clark] 
succeeded,  after  extraordinary  exertions,  in  raising 
three  companies." — Moser's  Illinois,  vol.  I,  p.  147. 
The  inference  from  this  is  that  Clark  left  Williams- 
burg  on  February  4th ;  that  he  proceeded  thence  to 
Pittsburgh ;  and  that,  at  the  place  last  mentioned,  he 
succeeded  in  raising  three  companies.  But,  as  already 
shown,  all  this  is  error,  but  Moses  follows,  substan 
tially,  Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  48. 


NOTE    XXXI. 

A    NUMBER   OF    FAMILIES    FOLLOW    CLARK. 

In  his  Memoir — Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p. 
121 — Clark  says  there  went  with  him  "a  considerable 


568       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

number  of  families  and  private  adventurers."  This 
is  followed  by  Butler  (History  of  Kentucky,  p.  50). 

A  remark  afterwards  made  by  Clark  makes  it  prob 
able  that  there  were  about  twenty  of  these  families, 
as  stated  in  the  text.  See,  also,  Col.  R.  T.  Dur- 
rett,  in  The  Southern  Bivouac,  for  January,  1884. 

Roosevelt  (The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  II,  p. 
39)  erroneously  remarks  that  "the  presence  of  these 
families  shows  that  even  this  [Clark's]  expedition 
had  the  usual  peculiar  western  character  of  being 
undertaken  half  for  conquest,  half  for  settlement." 
Surely,  enough  has  already  been  disclosed  to  show 
the  fallacy  of  this.  It  was  an  undertaking  wholly  for 
conquest.  The  families  collected  at  Redstone  did  not 
belong  to  the  expedition ;  and  their  desire  to  go  along 
with  the  Colonel  down  the  Ohio,  was  for  the  protec 
tion  which  his  force  would  give  them  from  attacks 
by  the  savages. 


NOTE    XXXII. 

CLARK    AND  HIS  RECRUITS  AT  PITTSBURGH  AND 
WHEELING. 

It  is  evident  that  Colonel  Clark,  upon  reaching 
Fort  Pitt,  must  have  informed  General  Hand  of  the 
true  object  of  his  expedition.  Bancroft  [History  of 
the  United  States  (ed.  of  1885),  vol.  V,  p.  310]  says: 
"At  Redstone  —  old-fort,  with  the  cordial  aid  of  Hand, 
its  commander,  he  [Clark]  collected  boats,  light  ar 
tillery,  and  ammunition."  General  Hand  extended 
no  aid  to  Clark  at  Redstone;  and  the  latter  collected 
no  light  artillery  here  or  elsewhere,  as  he  took  none 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       569 

with  him.*  What  help  he  received  from  the  com 
mander  of  the  Western  Department  was  at  Fort  Pitt 
and  Wheeling. 

"He  [Clark]  tried  to  raise  recruits  at  Fort  Pitt 
with  but  little  success;  but  while  here  [there]  he  re 
ceived  information  that  his  subordinate  officers  were 
progressing  more  rapidly."  (Dunn's  Indiana,  p.  133.) 
It  is  evident  that  "Redstone"  ought  to  have  been  sub 
stituted  for  "Fort  Pitt"  by  Mr.  Dunn.  And  it  was 
only  one  subordinate  —  Captain  Smith  —  who  sent' 
news,  particularly,  of  a  more  rapid  progress ;  and 
even  what  he  sent  was  not  an  accomplished  fact ;  — 
the  Captain  intended  to  do  much. 

"Under  authority  from  the  State  of  Virginia,  and 
with  some  aid  from  that  state  in  money  and  sup 
plies,  Clark  enlisted  two  hundred  men  for  three  months, 
with  whom  he  embarked  at  Pittsburg."  [The  History 
of  the  United  States  of  America.  By  Richard  Hil- 
dreth  (First  Series),  vol.  Ill,  p.  260.]  There  is  in 
this  statement  not  only  an  error  as  to  the  number 
of  men  who  embarked  with  Clark,  but  also  as  to  the 
place  of  embarkation,  when  starting  upon  his  expedi 
tion. 

We  quote  again  from  Bancroft:  "These  ["Cap 
tain  Leonard  Helm  of  Farquier  (sic),  and  Captain 
Joseph  Bowman  of  Frederic  (sic.)  each  with  less 
than  half  a  company']  and  the  adventurers  of  his 
[Clark's]  own  enlistment,  together  only  one  hundred 
and  fifty  men,  but  all  of  a  hardy  race,  self-relying, 
and  trusting  in  one  another,  he  [Clark]  was  now  to 
lead  near  a  thousand  miles  from  their  former  homes 

*  This  error  of  Bancroft  has  been  frequently  followed. 
As  an  instance,  see  History  of  the  Girtys,  p.  72. 


570       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

against  a  people  who  exceeded  them  in  number  and 
were  aided  by  merciless  tribes  of  savage  allies."  [His 
tory  of  the  United  States  (ed.  of  1885),  vol.  V,  p. 
310.]  That  they  were  in  reality  marching  against  a 
people  exceeding  them  in  number  is  true ;  but  that 
the  latter  "were  aided  by  merciless  tribes  of  sav 
age  allies"  is  not  strictly  correct,  as  will  hereafter 
be  shown.  Why  Bancroft  speaks  of  the  former  homes 
of  Clark's  men,  it  is  impossible  to  understand. 

As  General  Hand  furnished  the  Colonel  "with 
every  necessary"  he  wanted,  it  must  have  included  the 
prime  one  —  powder.  The  "stores"  taken  in  at  Wheel 
ing  included,  probably,  a  portion  of  what  were  fur 
nished  him  by  the  Fort  Pitt  commandant,  as  that 
post  was  supplied  by  the  latter.  The  "Linn  pow 
der,"  mentioned  by  Governor  Henry  in  his  private 
instructions  to  Clark,  was  secreted  either  at  Wheel 
ing  or  near  there,  but  was  not  disturbed  by  the 
Colonel.  One  writer  —  Horace  Edwin  Hayden  (Mag 
azine  of  American  History,  vol.  XXII,  p.  415)  - 
erroneously  concludes  that  Clark  supplied  himself  with 
it. 


NOTE    XXXIII. 

CAPTURE    OF   DANIEL    BOONE    AND    PARTY    AT    THE    BLUE 
LICKS. 

"On  the  first  day  of  January,  1778,  I  went,"  says 
Boone,  "with  a  party  of  thirty  men  to  the  Blue  Licks, 
on  Licking  river,  to  make  salt  for  the  different  gar 
risons  in  the  country.  On  the  seventh  day  of  Feb 
ruary,  as  I  was  hunting  to  procure  meat  for  the  com- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       571 

pany,  I  met  with  a  party  of  one  hundred  and  two 
Indians  and  two  Frenchmen,  on  their  march  against 
Boonesborough,  that  place  being  particularly  the  ob 
ject  of  the  enemy.  They  pursued  and  took  me,  and 
brought .  me  on  the  eighth  day  to  the  Licks,  where 
twenty-seven  of  my  party  were,  three  of  them  hav 
ing  previously  returned  home  with  salt.  I,  knowing 
it  was  impossible  for  them  to  escape,  capitulated  with 
the  enemy ;  and,  at  a  .  distance,  in  their  view,  gave 
notice  to  my  men  of  their  situation,  with  orders  not 
to  resist,  but  surrender  themselves  captives."  [Boone's 
Narrative  (by  Filson),  added  to  The  Discovery,  Set 
tlement,  and  Present  State  of  Kentucky,  in  Imlay's 
Topographical  Description  of  the  Western  Territory 
of  North  America  (London:  1793),  p.  340.  Hamilton 
to  Carleton,  Jan.  25 —  Apr.  25,  1778:  Haldimand 
MSS.] 

I  have  followed  Boone  as  to  the  number  of  the 
Indians  of  Beaubien's  party,  his  specific  statement  be 
ing  the  result,  doubtless,  of  actual  count.  Hamilton 
says  four-score  Shawanese  had  been  engaged;  but 
some  Miami  Indians  were  also  in  the  expedition. 

There  is  again  a  variance  between  Boone's  state 
ment  and  Hamilton's  —  this  time  as  to  the  number 
of  men  captured ;  the  former  says  there  were  twenty- 
seven  ;  the  latter  gives  twenty-six.  Boone  would 
hardly  have  made  a  mistake  in  their  number. 

There  are  a  number  of  manifest  errors  in  the  Nar 
rative  of  Boone.  It  is  always  to  be  cited  with  caution. 
Beaubien  first  went  to  Piqua  and  Chillicothe  with  his 
twenty-two  Miami  Indians,  where  he  succeeded  in 
persuading  eighty  Shawanese  to  accompany  him ; 
and  the  whole  force  marched  thence  to  the  vicinity 


572       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

of  the  Blue  Licks,  on  their  way  to  attack  Boones- 
borough,  when  they  came  upon  Boone.  Then  fol 
lowed  the  capture  of  the  latter  and  his  men.  And 
because  the  Indians,  particularly  the  Miamis,  would 
not  continue  the  march  and  attack  Boonesborough, 
Beaubien  was  offended,  and  soon  left  the  Miami  vil 
lage  for  Detroit. 


NOTE    XXXIV. 


LOOSE    NOTES       OF    LIEUT.    JACOB    SCHIEFFELIN. 


These  "Notes"  were  first  printed  in  the  Royal  Ga 
zette.  They  refer  mostly  to  the  principal  subject  of 
our  narrative — the  conquest  of  the  Illinois  and  Wabash 
towns  and  the  immediate  consequences  resulting  there 
from  to  a  number  of  British  and  their  allies  who, 
as  will  hereafter  be  seen,  fought  against  the  American 
forces. 

In  the  Magazine  of  American  History,  vol.  I,  these 
"Notes"  are  reprinted  from  the  Gazette  and  erron 
eously  credited  to  Hamilton  (p.  192).  Roosevelt 
(The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  II,  p.  86n)  blindly 
adopts  the  error,  citing  the  Gazette  evidently  without 
having  seen  that  periodical. 


NOTE  XXXIV. 
CAPTAIN    O'HARRA'S   VIRGINIA    COMPANY. 

The  history  of  this  [Captain  O'Harra's]  Virginia 
Company  is  faintly  traced  in  Jefferson's  Works  (The 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       573 

Writings  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  Edited  by  H.  A. 
Washington.  New  York:  1854),  vol.  i,  p.  236,  and 
in  Pennsylvania  Archives,  First  Series,  vol.  XII,  pp. 
126,  165,  167,  198. 

Says  Bancroft  [History  of  the  United  States  (ed. 
of  1885),  vol.  V,  p.  310]:  "At  Fort  Kanawha,  in 
May,  they  [Clark  and  his  men]  were  reinforced  by 
Captain  O'Harra  and  his  company."  This  is  mis 
leading.  It  carries  the  idea  that  Captain  O'Harra 
and  his  company  joined  Clark  to  go  upon  the  expedi 
tion  to  the  Illinois ;  whereas,  they  were  only  to  accom 
pany  him  down  the  Ohio,  intending  to  leave  him 
where  he  should  first  land.*  And  this  they  did.  Just 
here  it  may  be  said,  that  there  was  no  "Fort  Kanawha ;" 
it  was  "Fort  Randolph." 

Singularly  enough,  in  Henry's  Henry,  p.  590,  Cap 
tain  O'Harra's  company  is  mentioned  as  "Captain 
Harrod's." 

At  least  one  writer  has  supposed  that  Captain 
Willing' s  company  of  mariners,  which  preceded  Clark's 
force  down  the  Ohio  only  three  or  four  months,  was 
connected  with  the  latter  —  that  is,  that  it  was  under 
Clark's  command  (see  the  statement  of  Isaac  Craig, 
in  Magazine  of  American  Hisory,  vol.  Ill,  p.  513)  ; 
but  this  is  error.  Compare  also  Monnette's  History  of 
the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  vol.  I,  pp.  416,  417. 

*  This  error  has  been  frequently  copied.  See,  as  an 
instance,  History  of  the  Girtys,  p.  72. 


574       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE  XXXV. 

NO   POST   INTENDED   TO    BE    ERECTED   BY    CLARK    AT   THE 
MOUTH    OF    THE    KENTUCKY. 

Whatever  were  the  declarations  of  Clark  in  after 
years  as  to  his  having,  when  reached  the  mouth  of  the 
Kentucky,  some  thoughts  of  fortifying  a  post  there, 
it  is  evident  from  his  assertions  made  soon  after  his 
expedition  took  place,  that  he  had  no  such  inten 
tions —  that  he  did  not  seriously  consider  any  such 
plan  —  at  any  time  while  moving  down  the  Ohio. 
What  he  really  meant  in  informing  County  Lieutenant 
Bowman  of  his  resolve  to  erect  some  kind  of  a  forti 
fication  at  the  Falls  will  hereafter  be  fully  discussed 
(see  Note  XXXIX  of  this  Appendix). 


NOTE  XXXVI. 

ESCAPE  FROM   THE  ISLAND   OF   THE   HOLSTON   RECRUITS. 

Roosevelt  says  (The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  II, 
p.  40)  that  "the  Kentuckians  who  had  horses  pur 
sued  the  deserters."  This  carries  the  idea  that  some 
of  the  Kentuckians  who  had  joined  Clark  brought 
horses  along ;  and  that  these  recruits  were  the  ones 
that  pursued  the  malcontents ;  but,  the  statement,  as 
made  by  Butler,  does  not  imply  this  (see  his  Kentucky, 
p.  50).  The  following,  also,  conveys  an  erroneous 
impression  —  Captain  Dillard's  men  not  having  pre 
viously  "shown  a  disinclination  to  the  service"  :  "These 
[Clark's  men]  were  encamped  on  what  is  now  known 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      575 

as  Corn  Island,  in  order  to  prevent  the  desertion  of 
Captain  Dillard's  company,  which  had  shown  a  dis 
inclination  to  the  service."  —  Harper's  Magazine,  vol. 
XXII,  p.  790.  Other  published  statements  inaccurate 
in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  may  now  be  considered. 

"They  [those  of  Captain  Dillard's  company  who 
escaped]  suffered  greatly  for  their  crime,  and  endured 
every  degree  of  hardship  and  fatigue;  for  the  Ken- 
tuckians  spurned  them  from  the  gates  of  the  wooden 
forts,  and  would  not  for  a  long  time  suffer  them  to 
enter."  —  Roosevelt :  The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol. 
II,  p.  40.  And  that  writer  adds  that  they  were  hounded 
"back  to  the  homes  they  had  dishonored"  after  they 
had  "suffered  greatly  for  their  crime" ;  and  that  "their 
action  [in  leaving  Clark]  was  due  rather  to  wayward 
and  sullen  disregard  of  authority  than  cowardice." 
It  is  suggested,  however,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  they 
had  enlisted,  as  they  doubtless  supposed,  to  go  no 
farther  than  Kentucky,  that  their  "deserting"  was  not, 
in  their  minds,  a  crime,  nor  were  their  homes  dis 
honored  by  their  leaving.  Their  act,  they  believed, 
was  neither  cowardice  nor  a  wayward  and  sullen  dis 
regard  of  authority. 

Another  record  says:  "Only  a  very  few  [of  Cap 
tain  Dillard's  men  who  escaped  from  the  island]  were 
recaptured,  while  the  rest,  with  the  lieutenant,  made 
their  way  to  Harrodsfort,  where  the  garrison  for  a 
long  time  refused  them  admittance.  Many  of  these 
cowardly  fellows  perished  from  'exhaustion  or  by 
the  hands  of  the  Indians,  on  their  way  home  through 
the  wilderness,  the  settlers  everywhere  refusing  indig 
nantly  either  to  receive  or  hold  communication  with 
them"  (Harper's  Magazine,  vol.  XXII,  p.  790).  This, 


576       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

of  course,  is  an  exaggerated  statement:  none  died  so 
far  as  known. 

Dunn,  in  his  Indiana  (p.  134),  says:  "Here  [on 
the  island]  Clark  first  informed  his  men  of  the  real 
design  of  the  expedition,  and  naturally  enough  it  put 
a  damper  on  the  ardor  of  many  of  them.  A  number 
of  the  Tennessee  men  asked  leave  to  return  home  but 
were  refused ;  guards  were  placed  over  the  boats  to 
prevent  desertion.  In  the  night  a  part  of  the  Ten 
nessee  men  evaded  the  sentinels,  waded  to  the  Ken 
tucky  shore,  and  started  for  the  settlements."  But  none 
of  Dillard's  men  were  from  Tennessee;  they  were 
all  Virginians. 

"The  island  on  which  the  landing  [by  Clark]  was 
made,  since  known  as  'Corn  Island/  was  not,  a  hundred 
years  ago,  the  little  pile  of  rocks  and  sand  which  we 
now  see  at  low  water  only,  on  the  upper  side  of  the 
great  railroad  bridge  across  the  Ohio  just  above  the 
rapids.  It  was  then  a  large  island,  extending  from 
about  the  present  Fifth  to  Thirteenth  street  [of  Louis 
ville],  some  four  thousand  feet  in  length,  with  an 
average  breadth  of  about  one-fourth  its  length.  Its 
upper  end  was  principally  rocks,  but  the  lower  third 
was  covered  with  large  trees  and  cane.  Here  were 
sycamores  and  cottonwoods  that  ranked  with  the  giants 
of  the  forests,  and  here  little  cane-brakes,  from  among 
whose  stalks  peeped  wild  flowers  of  the  brightest 
colors."  (E.  T.  Durrett,  in  The  Courier- Journal  of 
August  2,  1883.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       577 
NOTE  XXXVII. 

OF  THE   KENTUCKIANS   WHO  JOINED  CLARK. 

Butler  says  that  the  Kentuckians  who  joined  Clark 
consisted  of  one  company  and  part  of  another  (History 
of  Kentucky,  p.  49).  Clark  speaks  of  them  as  "a  few 
Kentuckians,"  -  —  see  his  letter  to  Mason :  Clark's 
Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  26.  As  to  their  being  but 
twenty,  see  Monnette's  History  of  the  Valley  of  the 
Mississippi,  vol.  I,  p.  4i8n;  —  vol.  II,  p.  101. 

"Clark  was  organizing  an  expedition  against  .  .  . 
Kaskaskia  and  invited  as  many  settlers  at  Boones- 
borough  and  Harrodsburg  as  desired  to  join  him. 
The  times  were  so  dangerous  that  the  women,  espe 
cially,  in  the  stations  objected  to  the  men  going  on 
such  a  distant  expedition." -  — Collins'  Kentucky  (ed. 
of  1877),  p.  446.  But  Clark  sent  out  no  invitations 
to  settlers  to  join  him  in  a  movement  "against  Kas 
kaskia,"  and  no  women  in  the  settlements  knew  of  the 
real  object  of  his  undertaking  until  after  Colonel  Bow 
man  reached  the  island  in  answer  to  Clark's  call,  — 
bringing  with  him  what  militia  he  could  well  take 
along. 

As  already  mentioned,  Monnette  (History  of  the 
Valley  of  the  Mississippi)  is  relied  upon  as  giving  the 
correct  number  of  Kentuckians  who  were  retained  or, 
rather,  accepted  by  Clark.  I  have  not  hesitated  to 
give  credence  to  that  author  so  far  as  that  number 
is  concerned,  as  a  tradition  (seemingly  reliable)  gives 
the  same ;  but  Monnette,  in  some  other  statements, 
is  wholly  unreliable.  For  instance,  in  vol.  I,  (p. 
4i8n),  he  says  that  "he  [Clark]  succeeded  in  recruit- 

37 


578       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

ing  only  four  companies  at  his  rendezvous  on  Corn  - 
Island."  And  he  further  asserts  (forgetting  that  he 
had  previously  (though  erroneously)  stated  that 
Montgomery  was  one  of  the  captains  at  Redstone 
under  Clark)  that  it  was  "here  [on  the  island]  he 
became  acquainted  with  the  brave  Captain  Montgom 
ery,  'an  Irishman  and  full  of  fight/  who  engaged  in 
the  enterprise  with  great  ardor." 

The  American  commander  speaks  of  Montgomery 
as  "Colonel,"  but  he  went  to  Kentucky  only  as  Cap 
tain,  as  already  shown;  but,  at  date  of  Clark's  letter 
to  Mason,  he  was  a  Colonel.  It  is  evident  that  the 
time  for  which  his  original  company  had  enlisted  had 
expired.  He  did  not  bring  these  men  to  Clark;  he 
had  "Kentuckians"  with  him,  according  to  the  Colonel's 
statement  to  Mason. 

Clark  no  where  in  his  correspondence  of  the  period 
mentions  the  name  of  Kenton;  but  the  evidence  is 
overwhelming  that  he  went  upon  the  expedition.  That 
he  was  with'  Captain  Montgomery  when  he  joined 
Clark's  force  is  not  so  certain;  but,  as  the  Colonel 
mentions  no  other  Kentuckians  except  those  under  the 
Captain,  it  is  probable  that  such  was  the  fact.  In 
a  traditionary  account  (which  is,  of  course,  errone 
ous),  it  is  stated  that  Kenton  and  one  Haggin  were 
the  only  ones  who  went  from  Kentucky.  See  Collins's 
Kentucky  (ed.  of  1877),  p.  446,  for  this,  as  follows: 

"Clark  was  organizing  an  expedition  against  Kas- 
kaskia  and  invited  as  many  of  the  settlers  at  Boones- 
borough  and  Harrodsburg  as  desired  to  join  him. 
The  times  were  so  dangerous  that  the  women,  especi 
ally,  in  the  stations  objected  to  the  men  going  on 
such  an  expedition;  consequently  to  the  great  morti- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       579 

fication  of  Clark,  only  Kenton  and  Haggin  left  the 
stations  to  accompany  him." 


NOTE  XXXVIII. 

CONCERNING     CAPTAIN     LINN'*S     JOURNEY     DOWN     THE 
OHIO  WITH   A  LETTER  FOR   CLARK  GIVING  INFOR 
MATION  OF  THE  FRENCH  ALLIANCE  WITH 
THE   UNITED   STATES. 

Hall  speaks  of  Linn  as  having  been  "allured  by 
the  kindred  spirit  of  Clark  and  the  prospects  of 
gathering  laurels  in  a  distant  field,"  and  gives  these 
as  the  reasons  for  his  going  down  the  Ohio  with 
Campbell's  letter  to  Clark.  Now,  evidently,  "a  distant 
field"  refers  to  the  Illinois ;  but  Linn,  until  he  reached 
Clark  and  the  latter  had  divulged  his  secret,  knew 
nothing  of  the  Colonel's  real  destination.  It  is  highly 
probable  that  Linn  was  sent  by  Campbell  expressly  to 
convey  the  news  to  Clark  and  the  Kentucky  settlements 
generally,  of  the  French  alliance.  Butler  intimates 
(History  of  Kentucky,  p.  50),  basing  his  conclusion 
upon  what  he  supposes  is  the  statement  of  Clark  in 
his  Memoir  (Dillon's  Indiana,  ed.  of  1859,  p.  122), 
that  the  Colonel  received  the  news  while  going  down 
the  Ohio  after  leaving  the  island.  It  is  evident,  how 
ever,  that  such  was  not  the  case.  The  rapidity  of 
the  Colonel's  movement  precludes  this  idea. 

Campbell  was  a  Continental  officer:  "They  [the 
'rebels']  intend  erecting  forts  at  the  Falls  and  other 
places  on  the  Ohio  to  secure  a  communication  down 
the  Mississippi.  One  John  Campbell,  of  Fort  Pitt, 


580       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

received  a  commission  from  the  Cengress  last  winter 
with  orders  to  collect  or  raise  men  for  that  purpose." 
-Hay    to    Brehm    [Sept.    — ,    1778].  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


NOTE  XXXIX. 

FICTION    OF    CLARK    HAVING    SELECTED    THE    FALLS    OF 

THE    OHIO    AS    A    PLACE    FOR    A    MILITARY    POST 

WHILE  ON   HIS  EXPEDITION  AGAINST  THE 

ILLINOIS. 

Butler  (History  of  Kentucky,  p.  49)  declares  that 
Clark  fixed  upon  the  Falls  as  a  more  desirable  posi 
tion  for  a  fortification  than  the  mouth  of  the  Kentucky 
(where,  for  some  time  after  landing,  he  had  thoughts 
of  "fortifying  a  post")  not  only  because  of  its  more 
western  locality  but  for  the  reason  that  there  the 
craft  in  the  river  trade  would  be  compelled  to  stop 
in  order  to  prepare  for  the  passage  of  the  rapids,  and 
which  without  fortification  would  be  much  exposed 
to  the  hostilities  of  the  Indians.  But  there  was  no 
river  trade  at  that  time.  And  it  was  far  from  the 
Colonel's  intention  to  undertake,  at  that  time,  the 
"fortifying  of  a  post"  anywhere  on  the  Ohio,  or  even 
to  select  a  place  for  a  fortification,  to  protect  the  pros 
pective  river  trade  or  the  Kentucky  settlements. 

Roosevelt  (The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  II,  p. 
39),  in  attempting  to  follow  Butler,  travels  farther  into 
the  realm  of  fiction:  "This  spot  he  [Clark]  chose, 
both  because  from  it  he  could  threaten  and  hold  in 
check  the  different  Indian  tribes,  and  because  he 
deemed  it  wise  to  have  some  fort  to  protect  in  the 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       581 

future  the  craft  that  might  engage  in  the  river  travel 
when  they  stopped  to  prepare  for  the  passage  of  the 
rapids." 

Another  historian  declares :  "On  arriving  with  his 
forces  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  Colonel  Clark  took 
possession  of  an  island  which  contained  about  seven 
acres.  He  divided  this  island  among  a  small  num 
ber  of  families,  for  whose  protection  he  constructed 
some  light  fortifications."  [Dillon's  Indiana,  (ed.  of 
1859)  p.  121.]  The  last  half  of  this  extract  conveys 
an  erroneous  impression,  —  the  inference  being  that 
the  "light  fortifications"  were  "constructed"  solely  for 
the  "small  number  of  families"  on  the  island. 

"In  1778  .  .  .  Gen.  George  Rogers  Clark, 
with  a  few  families  and  adventurers  located  at  the 
'Falls'  [of  the  Ohio],  which  was  then  probably  the 
frontier  settlement  in  'the  dark  and  bloody  ground.' ' 
(Isaac  Smucker,  in  The  American  Historical  Register, 
vol.  II,  p.  60.)  But  Clark  did  not  settle  at  the  Falls 
of  the  Ohio  during  that  year.  And  the  same  writer 
still  further  confuses  matters  by  stating  (p.  61)  that 
Clark  settled  permanently  in  Kentucky  in  1776. 


NOTE   XL. 

NUMBER    OF    CLARK^S    MEN    ON    LEAVING    THE    ISLAND. 

As  to  the  number  of  men  under  Clark  who  started 
down  the  Ohio  from  the  island,  Captain  Bowman,  in 
his  letter  to  Kite,  of  July  30,  1778  says:  "The  force 
consisted  of  about  170  or  180  men";  and  the  Virginia 
governor,  Patrick  Henry,  in  his  letter  to  the  delegates 


582       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

in  Congress  from  his  state,  of  the  fourteenth  of  No 
vember,  following,  says  the  same  —  at  least  by  infer 
ence.  [See  this  last  mentioned  letter  in  Butler's  Ken 
tucky  (2d  eel.),  p.  533;  also,  in  Moses  Coit  Tyler's 
Life  of  Patrick  Henry,  p.  230 ;  and  in  Henry's  Patrick 
Henry,  vol.  II,  p.  16  and  vol.  Ill,  p..  200:  before  cited. 
See,  too,  George  Mason's  Plan  for  Cession  of  the  Ter 
ritory  of  the  Northwest  to  the  United  States,  dated 
July  27,  1780  (Kate  Mason  Rowland's  Life  of  Mason, 
vol.  I,  p.  365).  Mason  says  there  were  "about  one 
hundred  and  eighty"  officers  and  men.] 

Allowing  one  hundred  and  fifty  men  as  the  num 
ber  that  came  with  Clark  down  the  Ohio,  and  adding 
the  twenty  men  who  came  to  him  and  were  put  under 
Captain  Montgomery,  and  the  result  is  a  force  of  one 
hundred  and  seventy.  There  were,  it  is  true,  a  few  of 
Dillard's  men,  those  that  did  not  desert,  and  six  or 
eight  more  who  did,  but  were  brought  back ;  but  from 
these  we  must  deduct  the  number  left  behind  on  the 
island,  as  stated  in  the  next  paragraph  in  the  text 
and  in  the  foot-note  thereto.  There  could  not  have 
been  less,  therefore,  than  170  men  and,  probably,  there 
were  a  few  more  —  in  all,  as  stated  in  the  text,  about 
180  including  officers. 

It  was  afterward  the  positive  declaration  of  Ken- 
ton  that  Clark's  force  when  it  finally  left  the  island 
amounted  to  "one  hundred  and  fifty-three  fighting 
men."  (Compare  McDonald's  Sketches,  p.  219; 
Monnette's  History  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  vol.  I, 
p.  418,  note.)  But  it  is  evident  his  memory,  in  this 
regard,  was  at  fault. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       583 


NOTE    XLI. 

AS    TO    THE    FAMILIES    AND    SOLDIERS    LEFT    UPON    THE 
ISLAND. 

"About  twenty  families  that  had  followed  me  much 
against  my  inclination  I  found  now  to  be  of  service  to 
me  in  guarding  a  block-house  that  I  had  erected  on" 
the  island  to  secure  my  provisions."  (Clark  to  Ma 
son  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  27.)  This 
is  calculated  to  mislead.  Standing,  as  it  does,  alone, 
without  any  reference  to  a  detachment  of  soldiers 
having  been  left  on  the  island,  the  inference  is,  that 
the  men  of  these  families  were  the  only  ones  remaining 
as  guards  for  the  post,  which  is  error.  The  Colonel 
had  also  forgotten  that  a  number  of  the  families  had 
gone  into  the  settlements. 

"We  left  ten  or  twelve  families  with  a  quantity  of 
provisions  and  a  few  men  to  guard  them."-  -  Bowman 
to  Hite.  Some  traditions  give  thirteen  as  the  num 
ber  of  families  left  on  the  island.  (See  Marshall's 
Kentucky,  vol.  I,  p.  67.) 

The  detail  of  soldiers  was  composed  of  Isaac 
Ruddle,  James  Sherlock,  Alexander  Mclntyre,  Wil 
liam  Foster,  Samuel  Finley,  Neal  Doharty,  and  Isaac 
McBride.  (Durrett,  in  The  Southern  Bivouac,  Jan., 


"Clark  had  weeded  out  all  those  whom  he  deemed 
unable  to  stand  fatigue  and  hardship  ;  his  four  little 
companies  were  of  picked  men,  each  with  a  good 
captain."  (Roosevelt  —  The  Winning  of  the  West, 
vol.  II,  p.  41.)  But  this  conveys  a  wrong  impres 
sion  ;  Clark  simply  left  behind  those  he  thought  clearly 


584       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

unable  to  bear  the  toil  which  he  was  satisfified  would 
be  the  lot  of  all. 

Tradition  gives  this  description  of  the  depository 
and  defensive  work  left  by  Clark  on  the  island : 

"The  highest  ground  on  the  northwest  corner  .  .  . 
was  chosen  for  the  site  of  the  buildings.  The  huge 
cottonwood  trees  were  felled,  cut  into  sections  and 
split  into  large  rails  for  making  the  walls  of  the 
houses.  Two  rows  of  one-story  double  cabins,  four  in 
each  row,  were  erected,  with  a  wide  road  between 
them;  one  row  facing  the  Indiana,  the  other  the 
Kentucky  shore.  On  the  eastern  front  of  these  were 
erected  two  triple  cabins,  or  cabins  with  three  rooms 
each ;  so  that  the  ground-plan  of  the  whole  was  in 
the  form  of  an  Egyptian  cross.  The  buildings  had 
no  floors  and  the  roofs  were  of  riven  boards,  held  on 
by  skids.  The  doors  were  puncheons,  with  wooden 
hinges,  and  the  windows  simply  holes  in  the  walls, 
from  which  logs  had  been  removed."  And  these 
structures,  with  some  picketing,  formed  the  fort. 
(Durrett.) 

"From  thence  [that  is,  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Great  Kanawha],"  wrote  Captain  Bowman  (letter  to 
Kite),  "we  continued  down  to  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio, 
where  we  erected  a  small  garrison  upon  an  island." 
This  implies  rather  more  than  a  mere  depository  for 
provisions.  It  is  probable  that  work  continued  on 
the  buildings  for  some  time  after  Clark's  departure. 
Hamilton  afterward  wrote  that,  from  what  he  could 
learn,  "it  was  very  insignificant  in  its  present  state." 
(Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Dec.  4,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       585 
NOTE  XLIL 

CLARK    LEAVES    THE    ISLAND    FOR    KASKASKIA. 

Concerning  Clark's  starting  from  the  island,  and 
of  the  eclipse  of  the  sun  which  happened  immediately 
thereafter  and  of  its  effects  upon  the  ignorant  ones 
of  his  force,  much  has  been  written.  In  his  Memoir, 
Clark  says  the  eclipse  caused  various  conjectures 
among  the  superstitious  of  his  men.  Butler  (History 
of  Kentucky,  p.  50)  follows  the  Memoir  substantially: 
"The  next  day,  when  the  sun  was  in  a  total  eclipse,  the 
boats  passed  the  Falls.  This  circumstance  divided  the 
men  in  their  prognostications,  but  not  quite  with  the 
terror  and  alarm  we  read  of  in  ancient  armies."  But 
Roosevelt  (The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  II,  p.  41) 
improves  on  Clark :  "On  the  24th  of  June  Clark's 
boats  put  out  from  shore,  and  shot  the  falls  at  the 
very  moment  that  there  was  a  great  eclipse  of  the 
sun,  at  which  the  frontiersmen  wondered  greatly,  but 
for  the  most  part  held  it  to  be  a  good  omen  [the 
italicising  is  mine]." 

Bancroft  [History  of  the  United  States  (ed.  of 
1885),  vol.  V,  p.'  310]  makes  a  confused  statement 
of  Clark's  leaving  the  island: 

"On  the  day  of  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  they  glided 
over  the  falls  of  the  Ohio,  below  which  they  were 
'joined  by  a  few  Kentuckians'  under  John  Mont 
gomery.  On  the  twenty-sixth  of  June,  Clark  and  his 
companions,  Virginians  in  the  service  of  Virginia, 
set  off  from  the  falls,  and  with  oars  double-manned, 
proceeded  night  and  day  on  their  ever-memorable 
enterprise." 


586       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

By  this  it  will  be  seen  that  Bancroft  supposed 
Clark  and  his  men  "glided  over  the  falls"  before 
stopping  on  the  island ;  and  that  they  started  for  the 
Illinois  two  days  after  the  eclipse. 

"About  the  24th  of  June,  he  [Clark]  commenced 
his  voyage  down  the  river  [from  the  island],  after 
communicating  to  his  officers  the  object  and  design  of 
the  expedition. 

"Arrangements  for  additional  supplies  had  been 
made  by  the  Federal  authorities,  through  Captain 
William  Lynn  and  Captain  James  Willing,  to  be  ob 
tained  from  the  Spaniards  in  New  Orleans  for  the 
supply  of  all  the  posts  in  the  region  of  the  Ohio,  as 
well  as  for  the  expedition  to  the  upper  Mississippi." 
(Monnette's  History  of  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi, 
vol.  I,  pp.  416,  417.)  But,  as  we  have  seen,  Clark 
communicated  not  only  to  his  officers  but  to  the  rank 
and  file  "the  object  and  design  of  the  expedition"  be 
fore  leaving  the  island  for  Kaskaskia.  Neither  the 
Federal  nor  the  Virginia  authorities  made  any  ar 
rangements  through  "Lynn"  or  Willing,  for  Clark's 
expedition ;  —  that  is,  for  "the  expedition  to  the  upper 
Mississippi." 


NOTE   XLIII. 

CLARK'S  ERRONEOUS  ASSERTION  THAT  HE  HAD 
THOUGHTS  OF  FIRST  ATTACKING  VINCENNES. 

"My  force  [on  the  island]  being  so  small  to  what 
I  expected,"  are  the  words  of  Clark  years  after, 
"owing  to  the  various  circumstances  already  men 
tioned,  I  found  it  necessary  to  alter  my  plans  of  oper- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       587 

ation.  As  Post  Vincennes,  at  this  time,  was  a  town 
of  considerable  force,  consisting  of  near  four  hundred 
militia,  with  an  Indian  town  adjoining,  and  [with] 
great  numbers  [of  savages]  continually  in  the  neigh 
borhood,  and  in  the  scale  of  Indian  affairs  of  more 
importance  than  any  other,  I  had  thought  of  attacking 
it  first ;  but  now  found  I  could  by  no  means  venture 
near  it.  I  resolved  to  begin  my  career  in  the  Illinois, 
where  there  were  more  inhabitants,  but  scattered  in 
different  villages,  and  less  danger  of  being  imme 
diately  overpowered  by  the  Indians :  in  case  of  nec 
essity,  we  could  probably  make  our  retreat  to  the 
Spanish  side  of  the  Mississippi,  but  if  successful,  we 
might  pave  our  \vay  to  the  possession  of  the  Post 
Vincennes. 

"I  had  fully  acquainted  myself  that  the  French 
inhabitants  in  those  western  settlements  had  great  in 
fluence  among  the  Indians  in  general  and  were  more 
beloved  by  them  than  any  other  Europeans ;  that  their 
commercial  intercourse  was  universal  throughout  the 
western  and  northwestern  countries ;  and  that  the 
governing  interest  on  the  lakes  was  mostly  in  the 
hands  of  the  English,  who  were  not  much  beloved  by 
them.  These,  and  many  other  ideas  similar  thereto, 
caused  me  to  resolve,  if  possible,  to  strengthen  myself 
by  such  train  of  conduct  as  might  probably  attach 
the  French  inhabitants  to  our  interest,  and  give  us 
influence  at  a  greater  distance  than  the  country  we 
were  aiming  for."  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana 
(ed.  of  1859),  p.  122.  But  it  could  not  have  been  that 
Clark,  on  the  island,  changed  his  "plans  of  operation." 
He  was  on  his  way  to  Kaskaskia  direct,  before  he 
descended  the  Ohio  at  all ;  and  this  plan  to  have  de- 


588       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

viated  from,  and  first  to  have  marched  against  Vin- 
cennes,  would  have  been  certainly,  in  violation  of  his 
Private  Instructions.  As  to  what  Clark  says  about 
the  influence  of  the  French  with  the  Indians  and  as 
to  their  commercial  intercourse  throughout  the  North 
west,  —  it  is  probable  he  drew  on  subsequent  infor 
mation,  largely,  for  that ;  so,  also,  as  to  the  govern 
ing  interest  on  the  lakes  being  mostly  in  the  hands 
of  the  English,  who  were  not  much  beloved  by  the 
savages. 

"Colonel  Clark  for  some  time  meditated  a  blow 
against  St.  Vincennes  [Vincennes],  but  on  reviewing 
his  little  body  ...  he  determined  to  prosecute  the 
original  object  of  his  expedition.  The  facility  of  re 
treat  to  the  Spanish  possessions,  as  well  as  the  more 
dispersed  state  of  the  French  settlements  in  the  Illi 
nois,  as  it  was  called,  seem  to  have  had  great  weight 
in  this  selection.  To  this  was  added  a  hope  that  he 
might  attach  the  French  to  the  American  interest, 
whose  influence  over  the  Indians  throughout  these 
extensive  territories  was  strengthened  by  time,  and 
maintained  by  a  tact  and  versatility  which  have  been 
undiminished  for  two  centuries."  (Butler's  Kentucky, 
p.  50.)  It  will  be  seen  that  that  writer  entirely  over 
looks  the  Private  Instructions  given  by  Gov.  Henry 
to  Clark,  which  he  publishes  in  full  on  p.  395  of  his 
history  (ed.  of  1834).  Nor  is  there  any  evidence  ex 
tant,  that,  in  any  oral  instructions  given  by  Governor 
Henry  to  the  Colonel,  the  latter  was  authorized  to 
attack  Vincennes  before  going  to  Kaskaskia.  "I  was 
ordered  to  attack  the  Illinois,"  are  the  words  of  Clark 
to  Mason  (Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  23), 
and  "in  case  of  success,  to  carry  my  arms  to  any 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       589 

quarter  I  pleased  [the  italicising  is  mine]."     And  see, 
also,  pp.  31  and  32  of  the  same  work. 

It  is  clear  that  the  clause  in  the  Memoir,  there 
fore,  which  we  have  quoted,  is  mostly  erroneous.  The 
writer,  who,  of  all  others,  has  builded  most  upon  these 
errors  is  E.  A.  Bryan,  in  his  article,  "Indiana's  First 
Settlement,"  in  Magazine  of  American  History, 
vol.  XXI. 


NOTE  XLIV. 

AS   TO   THE    HUNTERS    CAPTURED    BY    CLARK  ;    ALSO    CON 
CERNING  FORT   MASSAC. 

"He  [Clark]  doubled-manned  his  oars  and  rowed 
night  and  day  until  he  reached  a  small  island  off  the 
mouth  of  the  Tennessee,  where  he  halted  to  make  his 
final  preparations,  and  was  there  joined  by  a  little 
party  of  American  hunters,  [the  italicising  is  mine]." 
(Roosevelt,  in  The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  II,  pp. 
41,  42.)  But  it  is  evident  the  island  was  not  off 
the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee  (i.  e.,  in  the  Ohio),  but 
in  that  river.  As  to  these  hunters  being  "American" 
in  sentiment  —  that  is  not  altogether  certain.  Clark  in 
his  letter  to  Mason  says  they  "appeared  to  be  in  our 
interest" ;  nevertheless,  he  required  them  to  take  the 
oath  of  allegiance.  They  having  just  come  from  Kas- 
kaskia,  is  a  circumstance  militating  against  the  idea 
of  their  being  in  favor  of  the  independence  of  America, 
even  though  they  formerly  came,  as  Clark  says  in 
his  Memoir  they  did,  "from  the  States."  However, 
they  now  resolved,  possibly  from  a  love  of  adventure, 
to  cast  their  lot  with  Clark. 


590       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Roosevelt,  also,  same  volume,  (p.  42),  in  attempt 
ing  to  follow  Clark's  Memoir  travels  outside  of  it 
in  stating  that  Rocheblave's  militia  were  not  only 
well  drilled  but  "in  constant  readiness  to  repel  attack" ; 
and  that  "the  Indians  and  the  coureurs  des  bois  were 
warned  to  be  on  the  look-out  for  any  American  force." 
In  view  of  the  fact  that  some  of  the  Illinois  hunters 
were  English,  the  substitution  of  "coureurs  des  bois" 
for  the  word  "hunters"  is  of  course  absurd. 

A  writer  in  The  North  American  Review,  vol. 
XLIII,  (July,  1836),  p.  15,  already  cited,  adds  to 
what  is  said  by  Clark  in  his  Memoir  as  to  his  deter 
mination  to  improve  upon  the  information  received  of 
the  hunters,  in  these  words : 

"Colonel  Clark  saw,  that  by  wisely  managing  this 
prejudice  [which  he  was  told  by  the  hunters  existed 
in  the  Illinois  against  Americans],  and  the  informa 
tion  he  had  received  on  the  [Ohio]  river,  of  the  treaty 
between  France  and  the  United  States,  he  might  be 
able  to  secure  the  assistance  of  the  French;  without 
this  he  could  have  little  hope  of  ultimate  success." 

"Clark  had  a  hard  winter's  work  in  enlisting  men, 
but  at  length,  in  May,  1778,  having  collected  a  flotilla 
of  boats  and  a  few  pieces  of  light  artillery,  he  started 
from  Pittsburg  with  180  picked  riflemen,  and  rowed 
swiftly  down  the  Ohio  river  a  thousand  miles  to  its 
junction  with  the  Mississippi."  —  Fiske:  The  Amer 
ican  Revolution,  vol.  II,  p.  105.  That  was  about  sixty 
miles  farther  upon  the  river  than  the  Colonel  actually 
rowed,  as  already  shown.  He  did  not  reach  the  Mis 
sissippi  by  about  that  distance.  As  to  artillery,  Clark 
took  none  down  the  Ohio. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       591 

Fort  Massac  was  on  the  north  side  of  the  Ohio, 
ten  miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Tennessee  river.  Its 
official  name  —  given  by  the  French  when  they  built  it 
and  who  then  occupied  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  —  was 
'TAssomption."  It  was  erected  in  1756  (some  writers 
claim  it  was  only  strengthened,  and  was  built  much 
earlier)  to  counteract  the  building,  by  the  English, 
of  Fort  London  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Tennessee. 
A  description  of  the  fort  is  in  the  Archives  of  the 
Marine,  Paris,  France.  (See  Douglas  Brymner's  Re 
port  on  Canadian  Archives,  1887,  p.  ccxviii.)  It  was, 
of  course,  unoccupied  at  date  of  Clark's  visit.  For 
additional  mention  of  this  fortification,  see  N.  Y.  Colo 
nial  Documents,  vol.  X,  p.  1092 ;  Monnette's  Mis 
sissippi  Valley,  vol.  I,  p.  317;  Pownalls'  Topographical 
Description  of  the  Middle  British  Colonies,  pp.  3,  5 ; 
Bouquet's  Expedition  (Cincinnati:  Robert  Clark  & 
Co's  reprint,  1868)  p.  143 ;  Hutchin's  Topographical 
Description  of  Va.,  etc.,  p.  12;  Washburn's  Edwards 
Papers,  p.  55 ;  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  28; 
Scharf's  St.  Louis,  vol.  I,  p.  71.  Consult,  also,  Collet's 
Journey  in  North  America;  McBride's  Pioneer  Bio 
graphy,  vol.  II ;  and  Nicollet's  Report.  In  subsequent 
years,  the  fortification  was  occupied  by  U.  S.  troops, 
for  a  time. 


NOTE  XLV. 
CLARK'S  ROUTE  FROM  THE  OHIO  TO  KASKASKIA. 

Both  in  his  letter  to  Mason  (Clark's  Campaign  in 
the   Illinois,    p,   29)    and   in   his    Memoir    (Dillon's 


592       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Indiana,  p.  124)  Clark  speaks  of  starting  in  a  north 
west  course:  "took  a  route  to  the  northwest" — "set 
out  [in]  a  northwest  course"  (not  in  a  northeast 
direction,  as  some  writers  affirm). 

The  distance  from  where  the  Colonel  left  the  Ohio 
to  Kaskaskia  is  given  by  Rocheblave  as  sixty  leagues 
(see  his  letter  to  Carleton  of  August  3,  1778,  from  the 
Haldimand  MSS.,  in  Mason's  Early  Chicago  and  Ill 
inois,  p.  418).  These  were  French  leag'ues — two  and 
four-tenths  miles  each  —  making  the  whole  equal  to 
one  hundred  and  forty-four  miles. 

Clark  did  not,  as  many  have  supposed,  follow  the 
"old  Fort  Massac  trail"  leading  to  Kaskaskia  and  Fort 
Chartres.  This  trace,  at  that  time,  had,  in  some  places, 
from  disuse,  wholly  disappeared. 

It  took  the  French  four  days  brisk  travel  on  horse 
back  to  go  from  Fort  Massac  to  Kaskaskia  by  that 
trail.  This  trace  is  distinctly  laid  down  on  Thomas 
Hutchins'  New  Map  of  the  Western  Parts  of  Virginia, 
Pennsylvania,"  etc.,  London,  1778. 

"A  military  road,"  says  an  early  Illinois  writer, 
"was  opened  and  marked,  each  mile  on  a  tree,  from 
Massac  to  Kaskaskia.  The  numbers  of  the  miles  were 
cut  in  ciphers  with  an  iron  and  painted  red.  Such 
I  saw  there  in  1800.  This  road  made  a  great  curve  to 
the  north  to  avoid  the  swanps  and  rough  country  on 
the  sources  of  Cash  river,  and  also  to  obtain  the  prairie 
country  as  soon  as  possible.  This  road  was  first  made 
by  the  French  when  they  had  dominion  of  the  country 
and  was  called  the  Old  Massac  road"  [by  the  Ameri 
cans]. —  John  Reynolds  [The  Pioneer  History  of 
Illinois,  p.  281  (ed.  of  1887)]. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       593 

It  is  evident  that  the  description  of  this  road  as 
given  by  Reynolds  does  not  agree  with  what  Clark 
says  as  to  his  route  in  so  far  as  marking  trees  is  con 
cerned,  after  about  fifty  miles  —  when  he  reached 
"level  plains;"  that  is,  the  prairies.  Of  course,  there 
were  no  trees  to  be  found  "each  mile,"  to  be  marked, 
as  the  Illinois  author  describes.  His  own  statement 
immediately  after,  disproves  this,  as  the  route  "made 
a  great 'bend  to  the  north  ...  to  obtain  the  prairie 
country  as  soon  as  possible." 

Some  writers  of  Western  history  state  that  the 
route  taken  by  Clark  was  wholly  a  new  one.  One  of 
these  historians  (John  Moses,  in  his  Illinois,  vol.  I,  p. 
148)  has  the  following:  "Kaskaskia ,  the  objective 
point,  was  one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  away  and 
the  hitherto  untrodden  route  lay  through  wilderness 
and  swamp."  Evidently  this  is  error,  as  "untrodden" 
here  applies  to  the  entire  distance,  and  we  have  Clark's 
statement  (by  inference)  that  the  last  part  was  along 
the  "hunters'  road"  [Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1.859), 
loc.  cit.] 

Rufus  Blanchard  (History  of  Illinois,  to  Accom 
pany  an  Historical  Map  of  the  State,  pp.  121,  122) 
says :  "The  trail  of  George  Rogers  Clark  from  Fort 
Massac  to  Kaskaskia  marks  an  epoch  in  American 
history  of  transcendent  import.  It  passed  close  by  the 
present  site  of  Marion  [Illinois],  and  afterward  be 
came  a  well  frequented  trail  between  Golconda  and 
Kaskaskia."  Mr.  Blanchard  also  has  laid  down  on 
the  map  accompanying  his  "History,"  the  supposed 
"trail." 

But  Clark  and  the  few  men  constituting  his  force, 
all  on  foot  as  they  were  and  traveling  the  last  of  June 

38 


594       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

and  the  first  days  of  July,  left  no  signs  behind  them, 
after  the  prairie  country  was  reached,  that  could  be 
relied  upon  as  pointing  out  subsequently  their  route 
to  the  "hunters'  road."  If,  therefore,  we  are  to  con 
sider  what  Blanchard  marks,  to  be  the  route,  never 
theless  it  must  be  wholly  an  imaginary  one  after  about 
fifty  miles  from  the  Ohio,  until  the  "hunters'  road" 
is  reached ;  and  just  where  that  was,  is  unknown. 

An  early  Kentucky  historian  says: 

"The  route  to  be  pursued  from  this  place  [where  he 
(Clark)  hid  his  boats]  lay  in  a  direction  somewhat  to 
the  north  of  west  through  a  low,  uncultivated  region, 
interspersed  with  ponds  of  various  dimensions  — 
with  the  geography  and  general  character  of  which, 
Colonel  Clark  was  not  unacquainted.  At  the  head  of 
his  regiment,  he  took  up  his  line  of  march,  on  foot, 
with  a  rifle  in  his  hand  and  his  provisions  on  his  back." 
( Marshall's  Kentucky,  vol.  I,  p.  67.) 

Another  Western  writer  gives  this  relation  con 
cerning  the  route: 

"He  [Clark]  was  now  [at  the  point  where  he  hid 
his  boats]  distant  from  Kaskaskia  about  one  hundred 
and  thirty  miles,  and  the  intervening  country  —  with 
which  the  writer  is  familiarly  acquainted  —  must  have 
been  at  that  period,  when  in  a  state  of  nature,  almost 
impassable."  (Hall:  The  Romance  of  Western  His 
tory,  p.  295.) 

See  further  as  to  mention  of  the  route  from  the 
Ohio  to  Kaskaskia,  the  next  Note  of  this  Appendix. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       595 


NOTE  XLVL 

CONCERNING   CLARK^S    TROUBLE   WITH    HIS  GUIDE   IN 
MARCHING    FROM     THE    OHIO    TO    KASKASKIA. 

The  statement  by  Clark  in  his  Memoir  concerning 
the  difficulty  he  had  with  his  guide  is  that  he  asked 
him  (Saunders)  various  questions,  and  from  his  an 
swers  he  could  scarcely  determine  what  to  think  of 
him; — whether  he  was  lost  or  was  attempting  to  de 
ceive.  The  cry  of  the  men  was  that  he  was  a  traitor. 
He  begged  that  he  might  be  suffered  to  go  some  dis 
tance  into  a  prairie  that  was  in  full  view,  to  try  and 
make  some  discovery  whether  or  not  he  was  right.  "I 
told  him  [Saunders],"  says  Clark,  "he  might  go,  but 
that  I  was  suspicious  of  him  from  his  conduct;  that, 
from  the  first  day  of  his  being  employed,  he  always  said 
he  knew  the  way  well ;  that  there  was  now  a  different 
appearance;  that  I  saw  the  nature  of  the  country  was 
such  that  a  person  once  acquainted  with  it,  could  not 
in  a  short  time  forget  it ;  that  a  few  men  should  go 
with  him  to  prevent  his  escape ;  and  that  if  he  did  not 
discover,  and  take  us  into,  the  hunters'  road  that  led 
from  the  east  into  Kaskaskia,  which  he  had  frequently 
described,  I  would  have  him  immediately  put  to  death, 
which  I  was  determined  to  have  done;  but  after  a 
search  of  an  hour  or  two  he  came  to  a  place  that  he 
knew  perfectly,  and  we  discovered  that  the  poor  fellow 
had  been,  as  they  call  it,  bewildered."  The  only  vari 
ance  of  any  note  in  this  account  with  that  given  by 
Clark  to  Mason  is  where  he  speaks  of  letting  Saunders 
go  in  search  of  the  hunters'  road  having  with  him  a 
few  men. 


596       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Bancroft  [History  of  the  United  States  (ed.  of 
1885),  vol.  V,  p.  311]  says: 

Apprised  of  the  condition  of  Kaskaskia  by  a  band 
of  hunters,  Clark  ran  his  boats  into  a  creek  a  mile 
above  Fort  Massac,  reposed  there  but  for  a  night,  and 
struck  across  the  hills  to  the  great  prairie.  On  the 
treeless  plain  his  party  'in  all  about  one  hundred  and 
eighty'  could  be  seen  for  miles  around  by  nations  of 
Indians,  able  to  fall  on  them  with  three  times  their 
number;  yet  they  were  in  the  highest  spirits,  and  he 
felt  as  never  again  in  his  life  a  flow  of  rage/  an  in 
tensity  of  will,  a  zeal  for  action." 

These  words  convey  several  erroneous  ideas,  some 
directly ;  others  by  inference :  ( i )  that,  because  of 
the  information  received  from  the  band  of  hunters, 
Clark  ran  his  boats  into  a  creek  a  mile  above  Fort 
Massac;  (2)  that  he  struck  across  the  hills  (by  infer 
ence  near  the  Ohio)  to  the  great  prairie;  (3)  that  the 
nations  of  Indians  in  the  country  around  could  muster 
about  three  times  as  many  as  Clark's  men  and,  would 
do  so  if  they  knew  of  his  coming;  (4)  that  Clark's 
flow  of  rage  was  against  the  British  and  their  Indian 
allies. 

Clark  intended  when  he  left  the  island  to  strike 
across  the  country  from  a  point  at  or  near  the  site  of 
Fort  Massac.  He  did  not  reach  the  great  prairie  for 
fifty  miles  after  leaving  the  Ohio.  The  various  in- 
clian  nations  within  striking  distance  had  not  generally 
taken  up  the  hatchet  against  the  Americans.  And 
Clark's  rage  was  only  against  his  guide. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       597 


NOTE  XLVII. 

THE   SUFFERING   FROM    HUNGER   OF   CLARK/ S   FORCE 
ON    THE    MARCH. 

It  is  altogether  certain  that  Clark  expected  to  reach 
Kaskaskia  after  leaving  the  Ohio,  in  four  days  and 
had  only  taken  along  provisions  for  that  length  of 
time;  but,  as  his  journey  was  protracted  to  six  days, 
the  last  two  were  days  of  fasting. 

In  his  Memoir,  Clark  says :  "The  weather  was 
favorable;  in  some  parts  water  was  scarce,  as  well  as 
game ;  of  course  we  suffered  drought  and  hunger,  but 
not  to  excess."  (Dillon's  Indiana,  ed.  of  1859,  p. 
124.)  But  as  Bowman  in  his  letter  to  Hite,  cited  in 
the  text,  wrote  only  a  few  weeks  after  the  march,  his 
recollection  would  be  vivid  as  to  the  hunger;  and 
he  plainly  indicates  that  it  caused  considerable  distress. 
In  his  letter  to  Mason,  Clark  is  silent  upon  the  subject. 
A  recent  writer  says: 

"On  the  evening  of  the  fourth  of  July,  weary,  foot 
sore  and  hungry,  Colonel  Clark  and  his  little  army 
came  within  sight  of  Kaskaskia.  Only  the  river  flowed 
between  them  and  the  fort,  of  which  they  hoped  soon 
to  take  possession."  [Mary  Cone,  in  "The  Expedition 
and  Conquests  of  General  George  Rogers  Clarke,  in 
1778-9":  Magazine  of  Western  History,  vol.  II.  (May, 
1885).  p.  143].  But  Clark  does  not  say  that,  at  their 
first  halt,  they  were  in  sight  of  Kaskaskia  as  this  ex 
tract  implies ;  it  is  evident  they  were  not ;  nor  had  they 
yet  reached  the  river  Kaskaskia.  But  this  lady  truly 
affirms,  "the  river  flowed  between  them  and  the  fort, 
of  which  they  hoped  soon  to  take  possession."  That 


598       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,,  ETC. 

fortification  was  Fort  Gage;  and  Clark  and  his  army 
were  on  -the  east  side  of  the  stream.  (See  next  note 
in  this  Appendix.) 


NOTE  XLVIII. 

AS    TO    THE    CROSSING    OF    THE    KASKASKIA    RIVER,    THE 

LOCATION    OF    FORT    GAGE    AND    ITS    CAPTURE,    AND 

THE    TAKING   OF   THE  TOWN. 

The  language  of  Clark  both  in  his  letter  to  Mason 
and  in  his  Memoir  plainly  indicates  that  after  reaching 
the  Kaskaskia,  it  was  the  next  step  to  secure  boats  for 
the  Colonel  and  his  men  —  not  a  part  of  them  —  to 
cross  over  the  river  to  the  town.  A  recent  writer 
(Mary  Cone)  truthfully  says: 

"They  waited  under  cover  until  darkness,  whose 
friendly  hand  should  spread  its  veil  over  the  scene  and 
conceal  them  from  the  eyes  of  the  enemy.  When  the 
shades  of  night  had  thickened  so  as  to  render  them  in 
visible  they  marched  to  a  farm-house  which  was  less 
than  a  mile  from  the  fort  and  making  the  family 
prisoners,  took  possession  of  the  house.  Here  they 
found  boats  to  cross  the  river,  and,  having  crossed  in 
silence  and  stillness,  they  took  up  their  line  of  march 
for  the  fort.  They  approached  so  noiselessly  that 
neither  the  town,  nor  the  fort  was  aware  of  his  com 
ing."  (Magazine  of  Western  History,  article  "George 
Rogers  Clark,"  vol.  II.) 

Butler  (History  of  Kentucky,  p.  52)  erroneously 
writes : 

"A  sufficient  quantity  of  boats  for  transportation 
of  the  troops  was  soon  procured ;  two  divisions  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       599 

party  crossed  the  river  with  orders  to  repair  to  different 
parts  of  the  town,  while  Colonel  Clark,  with  the  third 
division  took  possession  of  the  fort  .  on  this 

[the  east]  side  of  the  river  in  point  blank  shot  of  the 
town."  Here,  for  the  first  time,  Butler  refuses  to  fol 
low  Clark's  Memoir;  but  the  latter  is  correct  in  this 
regard,  and  Butler  is  in  error. 

Reynolds  (Pioneer  History  of  Illinois  (ed.  of  1887, 
p.  93)  goes  still  farther  astray: 

"Two  parties  were  to  cross  the  Kaskaskia  river  and 
the  other  was  to  remain  on  the  east  side  so  as  to  cap 
ture  the  town  and  fort  at  the  same  time.  The  fearless 
Captain  Helm  commanded  the  troops  [which  were] 
to  cross  the  river  and  take  the  village;  while  Clark 
himself  commanded  the  other  wing  to  capture  the  fort. 
Boats  and  canoes  were  procured  to  cross  the  river." 

The  importance  attached  to  the  exact  location  of 
Fort  Gage,  and  the  fact  that  it  is  a  matter  of  contro 
versy,  justify  the  bringing  forward  proofs  that  are  at 
command  —  all  showing  unmistakably  that  it  was  not 
on  the  east  side  of  the  Kaskaskia,  but  on  the  west  side, 
and  in  the  village.  Until  a  late  date,  this  fort,  ever 
since  the  Revolution,  has  been  by  all  writers  of  West 
ern  history  (as  well  as  by  tradition)  confounded  with 
the  fort  built  by  the  French  —  the  same  which  pre 
vious  to  its  destruction  by  fire  in  1766,  stood  upon  the 
east  bank  of  the  Kaskaskia  river. 

"It  is  now  [1887]  the  popular  belief  of  the  resi 
dents  in  the  vicinity  and  it  has  been  the  positive  state 
ment  of  all  writers  on  the  subject  [except  that  of  Mary 
Cone,  in  the  Magazine  of  Western  History,  vol." II, 
p.  153]  that  the  fort  in  which  Colonel  Clark  captured 
Rocheblave  was  on  the  high  bluff  opposite  the  town, 


600       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

where  there  is  still  abundant  evidence  that  a  fort  once 
existed,  and  now  is  known  by  the  name  of  'Fort  Gage.' 
The  spot  is  daily  pointed  out  to  visitors  as  perhaps  the 
most  noted  locality  in  the  Western  country.  During 
the  past  year  [1886]  a  historical  painting  (40  x  30 
feet),  illustrating  Col.  Clark's  capture  Qf  Kaskaskia 
has  been  placed  on  the  walls  of  the  State  House  at 
Springfield,  111.  In  the  centre  of  the  picture  is  the  site 
of  the  old  fort  on  the  bluff,  and  near  it  stands  the 
Jesuit  church.  In  the  foreground  is  Col.  Clark 
addressing  a  council  of  Indians."  (William  Frederick 
Poole,  in  "The  West,"  in  Winsor's  Narrative  and 
Critical  History  of  America,  vol.  VI,  p.  719  n.) 

In  a  criticism  upon  Mary  Cone's  assertion  that  the 
fort  was  upon  the  west  side  of  the  river  —  that  "only 
the  river  [Kas-kaskia]  flowed  between  them  [Clark  and 
his  men]  and  the  fort  of  which  they  hoped  soon  to 
take  possession" — Mr.  John  Moses  (in  the  same 
Magazine,  vol.  II,  pp.  268,  269)  says :  "But  the  river 
did  not  flow  between  the  Colonel  and  the  fort.  Fort 
Gage  was  on  the  left  or  eastern  side  of  the  river,  which 
'flowed'  between  it  and  the  village  [of  Kaskaskia]. 
And  so  was  Colonel  Clark.  Now  it  might  not  make 
much  difference  to  any  one  at  the  present  time  to 
place  the  great  Caesar  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  Rubi 
con,  so  far  off,  and  which  he  crossed  so  long  ago,  but 
to  place  Washington  on  the  wrong  side  of  the  Dela 
ware,  or  Colonel  George  Rogers  Clark  on  the  wrong 
side  of  the  Kaskaskia,  will  hardly  be  permitted  with 
out  objection  and  complaint."  But  Mr.  Moses  soon 
changed  his  views  on  the  subject;  for,  in  his  Illinois, 
vol.  I,  p.  151,  he  ingeniously  writes:  "There  is  no  evi 
dence,  indeed,  that  Col.  Clark  ever  occupied  the  old 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       601 

fort  on  the  hill  [on  the  cast  side  of  the  Kaskaskia]"; 
—  a  safe  proposition  as  there  was  no  fort  there  to  be 
occupied,  nor  had  there  been  for  twelve  years  prior 
to  Clark's  appearance. 

"It  [the  French  fort]  was  an  oblongular  quad 
rangle,"  wrote  one  who  visited  Kaskaskia  a  short  time 
after  its  destruction,  "290  by  251  feet"  and  was  built 
of  very  thick  squared  timber.  "An  officer  and  twenty 
men  [British],"  he  adds,  "are  quartered  in  the  vil 
lage."*  An  account  written  before  the  British  took 
possession  of  the  Illinois  —  that  is,  before  1765,  says: 

"Two  leagues  up  this  [the  Kaskakia]  river,  on  the 
left,  is  the  settlement  of  the  Kaskasquias  [Kaskaskia] 
which  is  the  most  considerable  of  the  Illinois.  There 
is  a  fort  built  upon  the  height  on  the  other  side  of  the 
river,  over  against  Kaskasquias ;  which,  as  the  river 
is  narrow,  commands  and  protects  the  town.  I  don't 
know  how  many  guns  there  may  be,  nor  how  many 
men  it  may  contain.  There  may  be  about  400  inhabit 
ants  [in  the  town]."f 

The  site  of  the  old  fort  (which  fortification  never 
had  any  specific  name,  it  being  designated,  along  with 
the  town,  simply  as  "the  Kaskasquias")  was  500  yards 
from  the  river,  and  after  being  burned  down,  as  just 
mentioned,  was  not  rebuilt,  although  a  plan  "which 
would  cost  a  good  deal  of  money,"  was  submitted  to 
General  Haldimand  in  1767,  for  a  new  one.J 

*  Pittman :  Present  State  of  the  European  Settlements  on 
the  Mississippi,  loc.  cit. 

f  Bouquet's  Expedition  against  the  Ohio  Indians,  pp. 
145,  146. 

I  Haldimand  to  Gage,  April  31  [30  ?],  1767,  from  Pensa- 
cola  —  Haldimand  MSS. :  "L't.  Pittman  has  arrived  from 


602       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

The  French  fort  (that  is,  the  fort  which  was  on  the 
east  side  of  the  Kaskaskia  river  previous  to  1766) 
must  have  had  an  English  garrison  only  a  short  time, 
as  it  was  burned  the  next  year  after  the  British  took 
possession  of  the  Illinois.*  It  is  not  a  little  remark 
able  that  a  citizen  of  Illinois,  who,  as  early  as  1800, 
resided  in  Kaskaskia,  should  have  left  this  record: 
"The  English  government  [in  1772]  abandoned  Fort 
Chartres  and  established  its  authority  at  Fort  Gage, 
on  the  bluff  east  of  Kaskaskia."  [Reynolds:  My 
Oiim  Times  (ed.  of  1879),  p.  31.]  Again:  The  Brit 
ish  garrison  occupied  Fort  Gage,  which  stood  on  the 
Kaskaskia  river  bluffs  opposite  the  village."  [Pioneer 
History  (ed.  of  1887),  p.  81.]  He  adds:  "This  fort 
continued  the  headquarters  of  the  British  while  they 
possessed  the  country.  Fort  Gage  was  built  of  large 
square  timbers  and  was  an  oblong,  measuring  290  by 
251  feet.  There  were  in  this  fort,  in  the  year  1772  an 
officer  and  twenty  soldiers.  In  the  village  of  Kaskas 
kia  there  were  two  French  companies  organized  and 
in  good  discipline  ready  to  march  at  a  moment's  warn 
ing."  And  in  reference  to  Clark's  movements  when 
the  Colonel  reached  the  stream  his  words  are  (p.  94)  : 
"Two  parties  crossed  the  river;  the  other  party  re 
mained  with  Colonel  Clark  to  attack  the  fort." 

The  declaration  in  Butler's  Kentucky  (p.  52)  that 
two  divisions  [of  Clark's  force]  crossed  the  river,  while 

Illinois ;    sends  the  plan  of  a   fort  to  cost  a  good  deal  of 
money." 

*  Mr.  Moses,  in  his  Illinois,  vol.  I,  pp.  149-151,  supposes 
that  the  fort  built  by  the  French,  was,  after  its  occupation  by 
the  British,  known  as  "Fort  Gage."  But  the  words  of  Hamil 
ton  to  Carleton,  June  26,  1777,  hereafter  given  in  this  Note, 
imply  the  contrary. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       603 

Clark  with  the  third  division  took  possession  of  the 
fort  on  this  [the  east]  side  of  the  river,  in  point-blank 
shot  of  the  town."  is  an  error  which  may  be  found  re 
peated,  with  slight  variations  or  additions  in  many 
works  of  Western  history.  It  may  also  be  stated  that 
Blanchard,  in  his  Historical  Map  of  Illinois  which  is 
attached  to  his  History  of  Illinois  (Chicago:  1883), 
marks  Fort  Gage  erroneously  on  the  east  side  of  the 
Kaskaskia  —  making  it  identical  with  the  position 
formerly  occupied  by  the  French  fort. 

It  may  be  said  here  that  Clark's  Memoir  when  pub 
lished  in  Dillon's  Indiana  and  his  letter  to  Mason  when 
printed  by  Robert  Clark  &  Co.,  were  both  calculated 
to  direct  public  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  fort  cap 
tured  by  Clark  (Fort  Gage)  was  not  on  the  east  side 
of  the  Kaskaskia ;  nevertheless,  Mary  Cone's  article  in 
the  Magazine  of  Western  History,  already  cited,  gave 
it  such  prominence  as  to  awaken,  for  the  first  time, 
the  spirit  of  inquiry  concerning  its  true  location ;  and 
this,  under  the  intelligent  examination  of  William 
Frederick  Poole,  soon  determined  not  only  that  the 
fortification  was  on  the  ivest  side,  but  that  it  was  the 
real  "Fort  Gage." 

"The  fort,  in  which  resided  the  commandant, 
stood  on  the  western  bank  of  the  stream."  (Coleman, 
in  Harper's  Magazine,  vol.  XXII,  p.  790.)  This  is 
true  as  to  the  fort ;  but  he  complicates  matters  by  add 
ing  that  it  was  "opposite  to  and  within  point-blank 
range  of  the  town ;"  while,  as  already  mentioned,  it 
was  actually  in  Kaskaskia. 

There  are  several  statements  in  Clark's  letter  to 
Mason  and  in  his  Memoir,  referring  to  events  which 
transpired  subsequent  to  his  capture  of  Fort  Gage, 


604       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

which  clearly  show  it  to  have  been  located  in  Kaskas- 
kia.  Other  authorities  are  not  wanting  proving  beyond 
a  peradventure  that  such  was  its  position.* 

It  was  about  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century 
that  the  Jesuits  built  the  stone  building  in  Kaskaskia, 
known  as  their  seminary,  or  college.  But  their  order 
was  suppressed  in  France  and  its  colonies  in  1763,  and 
their  property  confiscated  to  the  Crown.  What  they 
were  possessed  of  in  and  near  Kaskaskia  consisted  of 
two  hundred  acres  of  cultivated  land,  a  very  good 
stock  of  cattle,  and  a  brewery.  They  had,  too,  their 
college  in  the  southeast  portion  of  the  village,  while 
their  church  edifice  (also  of  stone)  was  near  the  center, 
both  of  which,  considering  the  out-of-the-way  region 
in  which  they  had  been  erected,  made  "a  very  good 
appearance."  Such  of  the  property  of  the  Jesuits  as 
was  needed  for  public  use  was  retained,  and  the  re 
mainder  sold. 

[Philip  Pittman's  Present  State  of  the  European 
Settlements  on  the  Mississippi  (London:  1770),  p.  43. 
Compare  William  Frederick  Poole's  article  "The 
West,"  in  Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of 
America,  vol.  VI,  pp.  719-722.]  One  portion  not  dis 
posed  of  was  the  college  building  and  grounds,  and  it 
was  this  edifice  that  was  afterward  fortified  and  named 
"Fort  Gage,"  as  the  following  extracts  sufficiently 
prove : 

"Fort  Gage —  the  Jesuits'  House  at  Kaskaskia  — 
[was]  so  named  by  Captain  Lord  of  the  Royal  Irish, 
who,  in  1772,  surrounded  it  with  stockades  15  feet 

*  Among  these  are  the  letter  of  Captain  Bowman  to  Kite 
(before  cited)  and  "Bowman's  Journal"  (hereafter  to  be 
described). 


HISTORY  OP  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      605 


high.  It  is  in  the  town  of  Kaskaskia."  (Hamilton 
to  Carleton,  June  26,  1777:  Haldimand  MSS.) 

"I  must  inform  you  that  the  roof  of  the  house  of 
the  fort,  which  is  of  shingles,  is  entirely  rotten,  being 
made  twenty-five  years  ago,  and  that  it  rains  in  ever}' 
where,  although  I  am  continually  patching  it  up.  If 
there  is  much  longer  delay  in  putting  on  a  new  roof, 
a  house  which  cost  more  than  forty  thousand  piasters 
to  the  Jesuits  will  be  lost."  (Rocheblave  to  Carleton, 
February  18,  1778.) 

Subsequently  to  the  captain  of  Fort  Gage  —  that  is 
in  June,  1779  —  De  Peyster  at  Michilimackinac,  wrote ; 

"The  Kaskaskias  no  ways  fortified ;  the  fort  being 
still  a  sorry  picketted  enclosure  round  the  Jesuits'  col- 
lege." 

The  words  of  Clark  that  he  "broke  into  the  fort," 
make  it  certain  that  some  obstacle  was  overcome  in 
getting  inside; — that  he  did  not  enter  "by  a  western 
gate  that  had  been  left  open,"  as  stated  by  Mann  Butler 
in  his  "Valley  of  the  Ohio."  in  The  Western  Journal, 
vol.  XII,  p.  167.  And  in  his  History  of  Kentucky, 
(p.  53),  Butler  also  says: 

"The  fort  was  taken ;  Clark  entered  it  by  'a  postern 
gate  left  open  on  the  river  side  of  the  fortification,' 
which  was  'shown  by  a  hunting  soldier,  who  had  been 
taken  prisoner  the  evening  before.'  (Judge  David 
Todd,  of  Missouri,  obligingly  communicated  this  ch- 
cumstance  from  the  papers  of  the  late  General  Lsvi 
Todd,  who  acted  as  aid  to  Colonel  Clark." 

Upon  this  subject,  Bowman,  in  his  letter  to  Hite, 
is  silent.  He  only  says :  "About  midnight  we  marched 
into  the  town  without  being  discovered ;  our  object  was 


606       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC, 

the  fort,  which  we  soon  got  possession  of." — Almon's 
Remembrancer  (1779),  vol.  VIII,  p.  82. 

The  honor  of  being  the  first  one  of  Clark's  men  to 
enter  the  fort  is  claimed  for  John  Todd : 

"The  following  year  [1778]  he  [Todd]  accom 
panied  George  Rogers  Clark  in  his  expedition  to  the 
Illinois  and  was  the  first  man  to  enter  Fort  Gage  at 
Kaskaskia  when  it  was  taken  from  the  British."  .  .  . 
[Mason's  Illinois  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  p.  51. 
See  likewise,  Davidson  and  Struve's  Illinois,  p.  202]. 
Compare,  also,  that  writer's  article  in  Magazine  of 
American  History,  vol.  VIII,  p.  587  and  his  Early 
Chicago  and  Illinois,  p.  286,  already  referred  to.  (But 
whether  John  Todd  was  in  the  army  at  all,  doing  ser 
vice  under  Clark,  will  hereafter  be  considered.) 

Some  Western  writers  have  asserted  that,  at  its 
capture,  Fort  Gage  was  occupied  by  a  considerable 
force  and  that  all,  with  Rocheblave,  were  made  prison 
ers  ;  but  this  is  error. 

In  the  Magazine  of  Western  History,  vol.  II,  p. 
144,  Mary  Cone,  in  her  article  on  the  "Expedition  and 
Conquest  of  George  Rogers  Clarke"  says  that  "the 
garrison  was  well  prepared  for  resistance."  This  is 
successfully  criticised  by  John  Moses  in  the  same  peri 
odical  (vol.  iii,  p.  269)  :  "There  was  no  garrison  to 
speak  of  there."  What  the  first  mentioned  writer 
says,  is  this :  "The  garrison  was  well  prepared  for 
resistance,  and  but  for  the  suddenness  and  unexpected 
ness  of  the  attack  together  with  their  ignorance  in  re 
gard  to  the  very  small  number  of  the  attacking  force, 
the  taking  of  the  fort  would  apparently  have  been  im 
possible."  But,  from  what  is  known  of  Clark's  subse 
quent  valor  and  of  that  of  his  men,  under  conditions 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       607 

similar  to  what  would  have  existed  had  his  coming 
been  known  to  Rocheblave,  it  is  not  ver\  apparent  that 
he  would  not  have  captured  the  fort. 

Tradition  has  erroneously  given  Simon  Kenton 
credit  for  leading  a  detachment  into  the  fort  and  cap 
turing  Rocheblave.  The  substance  of  this  tradition  is 
that  Colonel  Clark,  leading  his  column,  was  conducted 
silently  by  a  guide  he  had  captured,  through  a  postern 
gate  into  the  open  fort,  and  while  with  his  sturdy 
warriors  he  surrounded  the  sleeping  garrison  and  con 
trolled  the  defenses  of  the  post,  the  fearless  Simon 
Kenton  at  the  head  of  a  file  of  men,  advanced  softly 
to  the  apartment  of  the  commander.  While  quietly 
reposing  by  his  wife,  he  was  aroused  by  a  gentle 
touch,  only  to  behold  his  own  captivity,  and  to  order 
the  unconditional  surrender  of  the  fort  and  its  defend 
ers.  (See  for  this  fiction  and  more,  Hall's  Sketches 
of  the  West,  vol.  II,  pp.  118,  119;  Butler's  Kentucky, 
p.  53 ;  Monnette's  History  of  the  Mississippi  Valley, 
vol.  I,  p.  418;  Magazine  of  Western  History,  vol.  Ill, 
p.  269.) 

That  Kenton  was  the  first  man  to  enter  Fort  Gage 
is  not  impossible,  though  improbable ;  and  it  is  certain 
he  did  not  lead  any  detachment  against  the  fort. 
Clark's  own  words  show  the  fallacy  of  that  assertion : 
"With  the  other  [division]  /  broke  into  the  fort  [the 
italicising  is  mine]". 

Another  version  of  the  tradition  is,  that  a  Pennsyl- 
vanian  had  just  been  captured  in  one  of  the  houses, 
"who  entertained  but  little  affection  for  the  English 
name"  and  who  cheerfully  acted  as  guide  to  Kenton's 
detachment.  But  it  is  clear  no  house  in  Kaskaskia 
was  entered  before  Clark  "broke  into  the  fort." 


608       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

One  among  the  earliest  of  Illinois  historians  helps 
to  perpetuate  the  Kenton  error : 

"Simon  Kenton  was  with  Colonel  Clark  in  the  cam 
paign  of  1778  to  Kaskaskia  and  headed  a  party  on  the 
night  of  the  4th  of  July  of  that  year,  who  entered 
Fort  Gage  and  captured  Lieut. -Governor  Rocheblave 
in  his  bed."  [Reynolds,  Pioneer  History  of  Illinois 
(ed.  of  1887),  p.  87.] 

But  this  is  not  all  the  fiction  that  has  found  its  way 
into  print  concerning  incidents  said  to  have  transpired 
at  the  time  Clark  captured  Fort  Gage.  We  quote : 

"The  night  on  which  his  [Clark's]  little  party  from 
Kentucky  reached  the  Kaskaskia  river  at  Menard's 
Gap,  they  saw,  on  the  opposite  bank,  the  Jesuits'  sem 
inary  lighted  up,  and  heard  issuing  from  it  the  sounds 
of  the  violin.  Clark,  leaving  his  horses  and  most  of 
his  men  on  the  eastern  side,  waded  across  at  the  warm 
ford.  It  was  a  ball  given  by  the  British  officers  to 
the  French  inhabitants.  He  placed  one  of  his  men 
quietly  at  each  door,  ouside,  with  orders  to  let  none 
pass.  He  himself,  wrapped  in  his  blanket  capot,  his 
arms  folded,  leaning  against  the  door-cheek,  looked 
in  upon  the  dance.  An  Indian  who  lay  on  the  floor 
of  the  entry,  intently  gazing  at  his  features  in  the  light 
reflected  from  the  room,  suddenly  sprang  to  his  feet 
and  gave  the  war-whoop.  The  dancing  ceased,  the 
ladies  screamed,  and  the  Frenchmen  rushed  to  the  door. 
Clark,  without  moving  from  his  position,  or  changing 
his  grave  expression,  desired  them  to  go  on  with  the 
dance.  'The  only  difference  is',  said  he,  'you  now 
dance  under  Virginia,  instead  of  Great  Britain.'  At 
day-light  he  and  his  mounted  men  were  opposite  to 
Fort  Chartres,  on  the  crest  of  the  bluff,  and  by  march- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       609 

ing  along  its  profile  so  as  to  be  seen  from  the  fort, 
countermarching  out  of  sight  and  again  showing  them 
selves  in  a  continuous  file,  his  force  appeared  so  large 
that  the  much  more  numerous  enemy  capitulated  with 
out  a  shot."  From  a  Memoir  of  Ebenezer  Denny,  by 
William  H.  Denny,  prefixed  to  the  Military  Journal 
of  the  former,  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Historical 
Society  of  Pennsylvania,  vol.  VII,  pp.  217,  218.) 
That  this  ridiculous  story  should  have  been  inspired 
by  Clark  himself  would  indeed  be  beyond  belief  were 
it  not  that  there  is  sufficient  reason  showing  such  to  be 
the  fact.  (See  Note  CLI  of  this  Appendix,  third 
paragraph.) 

That  the  Colonel  crossed  the  Kaskaskia  river  be 
fore  reaching  the  fort  —  "the  Jesuits'  seminary,"  is 
the  only  reliable  statement  in  the  whole  story. 

A  recent  writer  in  combining  a  small  portion  of 
the  Kenton  fiction  with  a  large  part  of  the  erroneous 
relation  last  given,  says  : 

"Inside  the  fort  the  lights  were  lit,  and  through 
the  windows  came  the  sounds  of  violins.  The  officers 
of  the  post  had  given  a  ball,  and  the  mirth-loving 
Creoles,  young  men  and  girls,  were  dancing  and  revell 
ing  within,  while  the  sentinels  had  left  their  posts. 
One  of  his  captives  showed  Clark  a  postern  gate  by 
the  river-side,  and  through  this  he  entered  the  fort, 
having  placed  his  men  round  about  at  the  entrance. 
Advancing  to  the  great  hall  where  the  revel  was  held, 
he  leaned  silently  with  folded  arms  against  the  door 
post,  looking  at  the  dancers.  An  Indian,  lying  on  the 
floor  of  the  entry,  gazed  intently  on  the  stranger's  face 
as  the  light  from  the  torches  within  flickered  across 
it,  and  suddenly  sprang  to  his  feet  uttering  the  un- 

39 


610       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

earthly  war-whoop.  Instantly  the  dancing  ceased ;  the 
women  screamed,  while  the  men  ran  towards  the  door. 
But  Clark,  standing  unmoved  and  with  unchanged 
face,  grimly  bade  them  continue  their  dancing,  but  to 
remember  that  they  now  danced  under  Virginia  and 
not  Great  Britain.  At  the  same  time  his  men  burst 
into  the  fort,  and  seized  the  French  officers,  including 
the  commandant,  Rocheblave."  (Roosevelt:  The  Win 
ing  of  the  West,  vol.  II,  pp.  45,  46.)  That  writer, 
after  giving  as  fact  what  is  quoted  above  (which  is  as 
we  see,  not  a  small  part  of  the  story),  says  in  a  foot 
note:  "The  story  was  told  to  Major  Denny  by  Clark 
himself,  some  time  in  '87  or  '88  [it  was  in  1785]  ;  in 
process  of  repetition  it  evidently  became  twisted,  and, 
as  related  by  Denny,  there  are  some  very  manifest  in 
accuracies,  but  there  seems  no  reason  to  reject  it  en 
tirely."  By  a  careful  comparison  of  the  relation  as 
first  published  with  Roosevelt,  some  additional  rhet 
orical  "twists"  will  readily  be  discovered.  Under  the 
Roosevelt  version,  the  lights  are  "torches" ;  the  dancers 
are  restricted  to  "the  mirth-loving  Creoles,  young  men 
and  girls ;"  a  "great  hall"  is  introduced  "where  the 
revel  was  held";  the  Indian  war-whoop  becomes  (as 
well  it  might!  (an  "unearthly"  one;  and  Clark's  desire 
to  have  the  dance  continued  is  now  a  command  — 
"grimly  bade  them  continue  their  dancing."  "At  the 
same  time,"  Clark's  "men  burst  into  the  fort,  and  seized 
the  French  officers,  including  the  commandant,  Roche 
blave" —  which  last  relation  Roosevelt  does  not  credit 
Denny  with,  but  gives  it  as  his  own  —  a  "twist"  nearly 
equal  to  any  given  by  the  Major. 

Butler,  in  his  History  of  Kentucky  (p.  53),  errone 
ously  declares  that  the  public  papers  in  the  fort  were 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       611 

not  captured,  out  of  delicacy  to  the  wife  of  the  com 
mander,  she  "presuming  a  good  deal  on  the  gallantry 
of  our  countrymen  by  imposing  upon  their  delicacy 
towards  herself".  .  .  .  "Better,  ten  thousand  times 
better,"  Butler  adds,  "were  it  so,  than  that  the  ancient 
fame  of  the  sons  of  Virginia  should  have  been  tarn 
ished  by  insult  to  a  female." 

And  Reynolds  (Pioneer  History  of  Illinois,  2d  ed. 
p.  95)  says:  "the  gentlemanly  bearing  of  Col.  Clark 
made  him  respect  female  prerogative,  and  the  ladv 
[Mrs.  Rocheblave]  secured  the  [public]  papers  in  that 
adroit  manner  peculiar  to  female  sagacity." 

In  another  history  of  that  state,  the  men  who  cap 
tured  Rocheblave  —  "the  British  governor" —  are  men 
tioned  as  "Kentuckians" ;  and  it  is  asserted  they  cap 
tured  a  few  of  his  public  papers  only,  "as  they  were 
secreted  or  destroyed  by  his  wife,  whom  the  Kentuck 
ians  were  too  polite  to  molest."  [Collins's  Kentucky 
(ed.  of  1877)  p.  137.]  But  Bowman  declares  all  were 
secured  by  Clark ;  and  such  undoubtedly  was  the  fact, 
still,  we  will  add  what  Coleman  says  (Harper's  Maga 
zine,  vol.  XXII,  p.  791 )  :  "There  were  important  papers 
in  this  gentlemen's  [Rocheblave's]  possession  which 
Clark  was  anxious  to  obtain ;  but  Madame  Rocheblane 
[Rocheblave]  resolutely  seated  herself  upon  the  chest 
that  contained  them  in  order  to  prevent  a  search;  in 
which  she  was  more  successful  than  the  Queen  of 
Poland,  who  tried  the  same  maneuvre  with  Frederick 
the  Great,  when  that  ungallant  monarch  captured 
Dresden.  But  Clark  had  not  got  rid  of  his  American 
respect  for  the  sex." 

Much  has  been  written  concerning  the  taking  of 
Kaskaskia.  One  writer  says: 


612       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"But,  although  the  town  was  taken,  the  work  was 
hardly  begun.  The  object  was  to  act  on  the  minds 
of  the  inhabitants.  For  this  purpose,  not  force,  but 
judgment  and  tact  were  necessary.  .  .  .  Let  us 
imagine  then  the  situation  of  this  ancient  place, 
which  contained  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  houses, 
and  had  stood  for  a  century  and  a  half  in  the  midst 
of  a  blooming  prairie,  its  simple  and  peaceful  French 
inhabitants  dealing  only  with  the  Indians  and  the  pres 
ent  generation  of  them  almost  ignorant  of  any  other 
race.  Taught  to  regard  the  Americans  as  monsters 
of  cruelty,  they  found  their  town  suddenly  fallen  into 
their  hands.  Gloom  and  fear  dwelt  visibly  on  the 
faces  of  all.  To  increase  this  feeling,  Clark  com 
manded  all  intercourse  among  the  inhabitants  and  be 
tween  them  and  the  soldiers  to  cease."  [The  North 
American  Review,  vol.  XLIII  (July,  1836),  pp.  15, 
16.] 

In  this  there  are  two  important  errors  to  be  noticed : 
(i)  Kaskaskia  "had  stood"  not  "a  century  and  a  half," 
but  a  little  over  three-quarters  of  a  century.  (2) 
Clark  ordered  the  inhabitants  "on  pain  of  death,"  as 
he  says  ( Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the 
Illinois,  p.  31)  "to  keep  close  to  their  houses";  and  in 
his  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  125 
—  he  states :  "the  men  of  each  detachment  who  could 
speak  the  French  language,  were  to  run  through  every 
street  and  proclaim  what  had  happened,  and  inform 
the  inhabitants  that  every  person  who  appeared  in  the 
streets  would  be  shot  down."  The  conclusion  is  drawn 
from  these  last  words  by  the  reviewer,  that  Clark  com 
manded  all  intercourse  among  the  inhabitants  and  be 
tween  them  and  the  soldiers  to  cease."  But  the  state- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       613 

ment  is  based  on  a  previous  one  given  by  Butler  in  his 
Kentucky;  and  it  may  here  be  stated  that  all  other 
matters  given  by  the  former  in  the  same  relation  have 
a  foundation  in  the  same  history,  of  which  that  article 
is  a  review. 

What  Clark  really  says  in  his  Memoir  (pp.  124, 
125  of  Dillon's  Indiana)  is  this: 

"With  one  of  the  divisions,  I  marched  to  the  fort, 
and  ordered  the  other  two  [one]  into  different  quar 
ters  of  the  town.  If  I  met  with  no  resistance,  at  a 
certain  signal  a  general  shout  was  to  be  given,  and 
certain  parts  [of  the  town]  were  to  be  immediately 
possessed ;  and  the  men  of  each  detachment  who  could 
speak  the  French  language,  were  to  run  through  every 
street  and  proclaim  what  had  happened,  and  inform 
the  inhabitants  that  every  person  who  appeared  in  the 
streets  would  be  shot  down.  This  disposition  had  its 
desired  effect.  In  a  very  little  time  we  had  complete 
possession ;  and  every  avenue  was  guarded,  to  prevent 
any  escape,  to  give  the  alarm  to  the  other  villages  in 
case  of  opposition.  Various  orders  had  been  issued 
not  worth  mentioning.  I  don't  suppose  greater  silence 
ever  reigned  among  the  inhabitants  of  a  place  than 
did  at  this  at  present:  not  a  person  to  be  seen,  not  a 
word  to  be  heard  from  them  for  some  time;  but  de 
signedly  the  greatest  noise  kept  up  by  our  troops 
through  every  quarter  of  the  town,  and  patrols  con 
tinually  the  whole  night  round  it ;  as  intercepting  any 
information  was  a  capital  object ;  and  in  about  two 
hours  the  whole  of  the  inhabitants  were  disarmed,  and 
informed  that  if  one  was  taken  attempting  to  make 
his  escape  he  should  be  immediately  put  to  death." 


614       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Coleman  (Harper's  Magazine,  vol  XXII,  p.  791) 
says,  concerning  the  effect  produced  upon  the  Kas- 
kaskians  by  the  "horrid  uproar"  of  Clark's  men :  "He 
[Clark]  ordered  his  men  to  patrol  the  streets  during 
the  whole  night  with  whoops  and  yells,  while  the  in 
habitants  remained  with  closed  doors,  listening  shud- 
deringly  to  the  horrid  uproar ;  expecting  every  instant 
to  hear  the  shrieks  and  groans  of  their  kindred  and 
friends  announcing  the  commencing  of  a  general 
massacre." 

"In  his  'Memoir'  Clark  dwells  at  length,"  says 
Roosevelt  (The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol.  II,  p.  4711) 
"on  the  artifices  by  which  he  heightened  the  terror  of 
the  French;  and  Butler  [in  his  Kentucky,  pp.  54,  55] 
enlarges  still  farther  upon  them.  I  follow  the  letter 
to  Mason  [Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  31], 
which  is  much  safer  authority,  the  writer  [Clark] 
having  then  no  thought  of  trying  to  increase  the  dra 
matic  effect  of  the  situation  —  which  in  Butler,  and 
indeed  in  the  'Memoir'  also,  is  strained  till  it  comes 
dangerously  near  bathos." 

Just  how  closely  Roosevelt  follows  Clark  to  Mason 
the  following  comparison  will  show : 

(I.)  Clark  to  Mason  (Clark's  Campaign  in  the 
Illinois,  p.  31 :  "In  fifteen  minutes,  I  had  every  street 
secured,  [I]  sent  runners  through  the  town  ordering 
the  people  on  pain  of  death  to  keep  close  to  their 
houses,  which  they  observed,  and  before  day  light  [I] 
had  the  whole  town  disarmed.  Nothing  could  excel 
the  confusion  these  people  seemed  to  be  in,  being 
[having  been]  taught  to  expect  nothing  but  savage 
treatment  from  the  Americans." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       615 

(II.)  Roosevelt  (The  Winning  of  the  West,  vol. 
II,  pp.  46,  47;  :  "Immediately  Clark  had  every  street 
secured,  and  sent  runnners  through  the  town  order 
ing  the  people  to  keep  close  to  their  houses  on  pain  of 
death  ;  and  by  daylight  he  had  them  all  disarmed.  The 
backwoodsmen  patrolled  the  town  in  little  squads ; 
while  the  French  in  silent  terror  cowered  within  their 
low-roofed  houses.  Clark  was  quite  willing  that  they 
should  fear  the  worst ;  and  their  panic  was  very  great. 
The  unlooked-for  and  mysterious  approach  and  sudden 
onslaught  of  the  backwoodsmen,  their  wild  and  un 
couth  appearance,  and  the  ominous  silence  of  their 
commander,  all  combined  to  fill  the  French  with  fear 
ful  forbodings  for  their  future  fate." 


NOTE  XLIX. 

WHAT    CLARK     (ACCORDING    TO    HIS    MEMOIR)     SAID    TO 

THE    KASKASKIAN    DEPUTIES    ON    BEING    SENT    FOR 

BY    HIM. 

The  priest  [Gibault]  accompanied  by  several  gen 
tlemen  waited  on  Colonel  Clark,  and  expressed  in  the 
name  of  the  village  their  thanks  for  the  indulgence 
they  had  received.  They  were  sensible  that  their 
present  situation  was  the  fate  of  war  and  that  they 
could  submit  to  the  loss  of  their  property,  but  they 
solicited  that  they  might  not  be  separated  from  their 
wives  and  children,  and  that  some  clothes  and  pro 
visions  might  be  allowed  for  their  support.  Clark 
feigned  surprise  at  this  request,  and  almost  exclaimed : 


616       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"Do  you  mistake  us  for  savages  ?  I  am  almost  certain 
you  do  from  your  language !  Do  you  think  the  Ameri 
cans  intend  to  strip  women  and  children,  or  take  the 
bread  out  of  their  mouths?"  "My  countrymen,"  said 
Clark,  "disdain  to  make  war  upon  helpless  innocence. 
It  was  to  prevent  the  horrors  of  Indian  butchery  upon 
our  own  wives  and  children  that  we  have  taken  arms 
and  penetrated  into  this  remote  stronghold  of  British 
and  Indian  barbarity,  and  not  the  despicable  prospect 
of  plunder."  That  now  the  King  of  France  had  united 
his  powerful  arms  with  those  of  America,  the  war 
would  not,  in  all  probability  continue  long;  but  the 
inhabitants  of  Kaskaskia  were  at  liberty  to  take  which 
side  they  pleased,  without  the  least  danger  to  either 
their  property  or  families.  Nor  would  their  religion 
be  any  source  of  disagreement,  as  all  religions  were 
regarded  with  equal  respect  in  the  eye  of  the  Ameri 
can  law,  and  that  any  insult  offered  it  would  be  im 
mediately  punished.  "And  now,  to  prove  my  sincerity, 
you  will  please  inform  your  fellow-citizens  that  they 
are  quite  at  liberty  to  conduct  themselves  as  usual  with 
out  the  least  apprehension.  I  am  no\v  convinced  from 
what  I  have  learned  since  my  arrival  among  you  that 
you  have  been  misinformed  and  prejudiced  against  us 
by  the  British  officers ;  and  your  friends  who  are  in 
confinement  shall  immediately  be  released." 

In  a  few  minutes  after  the  delivery  of  this  speech, 
the  gloom  that  rested  on  the  minds  of  the  inhabitants 
had  passed  away.  The  agitation  and  joy  of  the  vil 
lage  seniors,  upon  hearing  what  Clark  had  said  may 
well  be  conceived ;  they  attempted  some  apology  for 
the  implied  imputation  of  barbarians,  under  the  belief 
that  the  property  of  a  captured  town  belonged  to  the 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      617 

conquerors;  Clark  gently  dispensed  with  this  explan 
ation  and  desired  them  to  relieve  the  anxieties  of  the 
inhabitants  immediately,  requiring  them  to  comply 
strictly  with  the  terms  of  a  proclamation  which  he 
would  shortly  publish.  The  contrast  of  feeling  among 
the  people  upon  learning  these  generous  and  magnani 
mous  intentions  of  their  conquerors,  verified  the  saga 
cious  anticipations  of  Clark.  In  a  few  moments,  the 
mortal  dejection  of  the  village  was  converted  into  the 
most  extravagant  joy;  the  bells  were  set  a  ringing, 
and  the  church  was  crowded  with  the  people  offering 
up  thanks  to  Almighty  God  for  their  deliverance  from 
the  horrors  they  had  so  fearfully  expected.  Perfect 
freedom  was  now  given  to  the  inhabitants  to  go  or 
come  as  they  pleased,  so  confident  were  our  country 
men  that  whatever  report  might  be  made  [it]  would 
be  to  the  credit  and  success  of  the  American  arms. 
(Butler's  Kentucky,  pp.  55-57;  Dillon's  Indiana,  pp. 
125-127.) 


NOTE  L. 

AS  TO  THE  WINNING  OF   VINCENNES  TO   AMERICAN   IN 
TERESTS   BY  FATHER,  GIBAULT. ALSO   CONCERNING 

SIMON   KENTON  ACTING  AS  A  SPY  FOR  CLARK. 

As  the  jurisdiction  of  Father  Gibault  in  spiritual 
matters  extended  not  only  over  the  several  villages  in 
the  Illinois  country  but  over  Vinccnnes  as  well,  he  had 
of  course  considerable  influence  with  his  Creoles  of  the 
last  mentioned  town.  "I  sent  for  him,"  are  Clark's 
words  in  his  .Memoirs,  "and  had  a  long  conference 
with  him  on  the  subject  of  Vincennes."  "In  answer 


618       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

to  all  my  queries,"  continues  Clark,  "he  informed  me 
he  did  not  think  it  worth  my  while  to  cause  any  mili 
tary  preparation  to  be  made  at  the  Falls  for  the  attack 
of  Vincennes,  although  the  place  was  strong  and  [there 
was]  a  great  number  of  Indians  in  its  neighborhood, 
who,  to  his  knowledge  were  generally  at  war;  that 
Governor  Abbott  had  a  few  weeks  before  left  the  place, 
on  some  business,  for  Detroit;  and  that  he  [Gibault] 
expected  that,  when  the  inhabitants  there  were  fully 
acquainted  with  what  had  passed  at  Illinois  and  had 
been  made  fully  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  the  war, 
that  their  sentiments  would  greatly  change." 

Gibault  then  suggested  to  Clark  that  he  believed 
his  (Gibault's)  appearance  at  Vincennes  would  have 
great  weight  even  with  the  savages  in  changing  their 
sentiments ;  that  if  it  was  agreeable  to  the  commander 
he  would  take  this  business  on  himself ;  that  he  had  no 
doubt  of  his  being  able  to  bring  the  place  over  to  the 
American  interest  without  Clark  being  at  the  trouble 
to  march  against  it ;  and  that  his  work  being  spiritual, 
he  wished  that  another  person  might  be  charged  with 
the  temporal  part  of  the  embassy  but  that  he  would 
privately  direct  the  whole. 

It  has  frequently  been  published  that  Clark  sent 
for  Gibault  to  go  to  VincenneS  to  win  the  people  there 
to  the  American  cause.  But  this,  evidently,  is  error. 

"The  post  of  St.  Vincent's  [Vincennes]  lay  no 
great  distance  off  between  his  [Clark's]  present  posi 
tion  and  Kentucky  and  garrisoned  by  a  force  superior 
to  any  which  Clark  could  possibly  bring  against  it. 
Policy,  therefore,  and  not  force  must  again  be  resorted 
to." — The  North  American  Review,  vol.  XLIII  (July, 
1836),  p.  17.  The  use  of  the  word  "again"  here  implies 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       619 

that  policy  and  not  force  had  only  been  resorted  to  in 
securing  possession  of  the  Illinois ;  which,  of  course, 
is  erroneous.  The  force  in  Vincennes  to  guard  the 
place  was,  as  we  have  seen,  three  militia  companies. 

Clark,  in  his  account  detailed  in  his  Memoir,  giv 
ing  what  took  place  immediately  after  Vincennes  had 
declared  for  America,  evidently  draws  largely  upon  his 
imagination:  'The  people  here  [at  Vincennes]  imme 
diately  began  to  put  on  a  new  face,  and  to  talk  in  a 
different  style,  and  to  act  as  perfect  freemen.  With 
a  garrison  of  their  own,  with  the  United  States  at  their 
elbow,  their  language  to  the  Indians  was  immediately 
altered.  They  began  as  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
and  informed  the  Indians  that  their  old  father,  the  king 
of  France,  was  come  to  life  again,  and  was  mad  at 
them  for  righting  for  the  English,  that  they  would 
advise  them  to  make  peace  with  the  Americans  as  soon 
as  they  could,  otherwise  they  might  expect  the  land  to 
be  very  bloody.  .  .  .  The  Indians  began  to  think 
seriously." 

Clark  speaks  of  the  disaffected  in  Vincennes  as 
being  "emissaries"  of  Abbott;  but  this  is  misleading. 
It  is  evident  they  were  only  traders.  Some  writers 
have  gone  so  far  as  to  declare  they  were  British  sol 
diers,  which  is  certainly  error. 

Mr.  Moses  (Illinois,  Historical  and  Statistical, 
vol.  I,  p.  153)  says:  "Post  Vincennes"  was  "called  by 
the  British  Fort  Sackville."  But  it  was  simply  the  for 
tification  that  was  thus  known.  The  village  and  the 
fort  were  called  "Post  Vincennes"  —  "Post  St.  Vin 
cents"  —  "the  Post—"  "St.  Vincents"  —  or,  "Vin 
cennes"  as  now  known. 


620       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Much  error  has  been  printed  in  the  histories  of  the 
West  concerning  Simon  Kenton's  return  from  the  Illi 
nois  :  "After  the  fall  of  Kaskaskia,"  says  one  account, 
"he  [Kenton]  was  sent  with  a  small  party  to  Ken 
tucky  with  dispatches.  On  their  way,  they  fell  in  with 
a  camp  of  Indians,  in  whose  possession  was  a  number 
of  horses,  which  they  took  and  sent  back  to  the  army 
[i.  e.,  to  Clark's  army].  Pursuing  their  way  by  Vin- 
cennes,  they  entered  the  place  by  night,  traversed  sev 
eral  of  the  streets,  and  departed  without  being  discov 
ered,  taking  from  the  inhabitants,  who  were  hostile,  two 
horses  for  each  man.  When  they  came  to  White  river, 
a  raft  was  made,  on  which  to  transport  the  guns  and 
baggage,  while  the  horses  were  driven  in  to  swim 
across  the  river.  On  the  opposite  shore,  a  party  oi 
Indians  were  encamped,  who  caught  the  horses  as  they 
ascended  the  bank.  Such  are  the  vicissitudes  of  bor 
der  incident!  The  same  horses  that  had  been  auda 
ciously  taken,  only  the  night  before,  from  the  interior 
of  a  regularly  garrisoned  town,  were  lost,  by  being 
accidentally  driven  by  the  captors  into  a  camp  of  the 
enemy.  Kenton  and  his  party,  finding  themselves  in 
the  utmost  danger,  returned  to  the  shore  from  which 
they  had  pushed  their  raft,  and  concealed  themselves 
until  night,  when  they  crossed  the  river  at  a  different 
place,  and  reached  Kentucky  in  safety."  (Hall's  Ro 
mance  of  Western  History,  pp.  300,  301.) 

Other  printed  statements  vary  this  in  some  par 
ticulars  :  "No  sooner  had  the  Illinois  posts  and  coun 
try  been  subdued  and  quietly  occupied  by  the  Vir 
ginians,  than  Kenton,  seeking  more  active  adventures 
in  Kentucky,  was  made  the  bearer  of  dispatches  to 
Colonel  Bowman  at  Harrodsburg,  and  undertook,  in 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       621 

his  route  thither,  to  reconnoiter  the  British  post  at 
Vincennes,  on  the  Wabash,  in  order  to  furnish  Col 
onel  Clark  with  correct  information  of  its  condition, 
force  and  the  feelings  of  the  people.  At  Vincennes, 
after  lying  concealed  by  day  and  reconnoitering  by 
night  for  three  days  and  nights,  he  transmitted  to  Col 
onel  Clark  the  true  state  of  the  post,  informing  him 
of  its  weakness  and  the  disaffection  of  the  people. 
Thirteen  days  after  his  departure  from  Vincennes,  he 
arrived  in  Harrodsburg  and  delivered  his  dispatches 
safe  to  Colonel  Bowman."  [Monnette's  History  of  the 
Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  vol.  II,  pp.  66,  67 ;  —  Mc 
Donald's  Sketches,  p.  220.) 

Another  writes  gives  these  particulars : 
"His  [Kenton's]  active  and  enterprising  spirit 
had  induced  him  to  join  Colonel  George  Rogers  Clark 
and  [he]  was  with  him  at  the  capture  of  Kaskaskia. 
After  the  fall  of  that  place  Butler  [Kenton]  with  others 
was  sent  to  Kentucky  with  dispatches ;  on  their  way 
they  fell  in  with  a  camp  of  Indians  with  horses ;  they 
broke  up  the  camp,  took  the  horses,  sent  them  back 
to  Kaskaskias,  and  pursued  their  route  by  post  St.  Vin 
cennes.  Entering  that  place  by  night,  they  traversed 
several  streets  and  departed  without  discovery  or  alarm 
after  taking  from  the  inhabitants  who  were  hostile  two 
horses  for  each  man.  When  they  came  to  White  river 
a  raft  was  made  on  which  to  transport  the  guns  and 
baggage,  while  the  horses  were  driven  in  to  swim 
across  the  river.  On  the  opposite  shore  there  lay  a 
camp'  of  Indians  who  caught  the  horses  as  they  rose 
the  bank. 

"Butler  [Kenton]  and  his  party  now  finding  them 
selves  in  the  utmost  danger  permitted  the  raft  to  float 


622       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

down  stream  and  concealed  themselves  till  night,  when 
they  made  another  raft  at  a  different  place  on  which 
they  crossed  the  river ;  returned  safe  to  Kentucky  and 
delivered  the  letters  as  they  had  been  directed ;  some  of 
them  were  intended  for  the  seat  of  Government  [of 
Virginia.]"  (Marshall's  Kentucky,  vol.  I,  p.  74.) 

"After  the  conquest  of  Kaskaskia,  Col.  Clark  sent 
Kenton  with  dispatches  to  the  'Falls,'  and  to  pass  by 
Vincennes  in  his  route.  Kenton  lay  concealed  during 
the  day  for  three  days,  and  reconnoitered  the  village 
of  Vincennes  during  the  nights.  He  acquitted  himself 
as  usual  in  this  service  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  general. 
He  employed  a  trusty  messenger  to  convey  the  intelli 
gence  of  the  feelings,  numbers,  etc.,  of  the  people  of 
Vincennes  to  Col.  Clark  at  Kaskaskia."  [Reynolds: 
The  Pioneer  History  of  Illinois  (ed.  of  1887),  p.  87. 
Compare  Collins's  Kentucky  (ed.  of  1877),  p.  446.] 

Says  a  writer  in  Harper's  Magazine  (vol.  XXVIII, 
p.  302)  :  "Kenton  acted  as  guide  to  Clark  on  his  fa 
mous  expedition  into  the  Ilinois  and  was  sent  back  by 
him  with  dispatches  of  great  importance;  on  which 
occasion  he  passed  through  the  town  of  Vincennes 
(then  garrisoned  by  the  enemy)  in  the  night,  examined 
minutely  its  condition,  sent  back  to  Clark  the  informa 
tion  thus  gained,  by  a  companion,  stole  a  horse,  and 
made  his  way  alone  to  the  Falls  [of  the  Ohio]." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      623 


NOTE  LI. 

FICTION  CONCERNING  AN  ATTACK  MEDITATED  AGAINST 
KENTUCKY  FROM  THE  BRITISH  POSTS  NORTHWEST 
OF  THE  OHIO  RIVER. 

Concerning  the  securing  by  Clark  of  the  people 
of  Vincennes  in  the  interest  of  the  Americans  a  mod 
ern  writer  says : 

"But  a  more  serious  trouble  now  [that  is,  after 
Capt.  Bowman  had  taken  possession  of  Cahokia]  began 
to  weigh  heavily  upon  Clark's  mind.  He  had  barely 
made  himself  master  of  Kaskaskia  before  he  learned 
how  very  timely  his  bold  enterprise  had  been.  For  he 
was  informed  by  the  people  that  the  British  Governor 
of  these  posts  [Rocheblave,  whose  true  name  was  un 
known  to  this  writer]  was  actively  engaged  in  organ 
izing  an  expedition  against  Kentucky,  backed  by  the 
whole  power  of  the  Indian  tribes  residing  between  the 
Ohio,  the  Mississippi  and  the  lakes.  The  expedition 
was  to  move  simultaneously  from  Detroit  and  Kas 
kaskia  —  one  party  entering  Kentucky  by  way  of  the 
falls  of  the  former  river  [Ohio,  now  Louisville]  while 
the  other  made  its  way  down  the  Great  Miami  and  up 
the  Licking;  both  being  furnished  with  field  artillery. 
This  expedition,  which  had  been  anticipated  by  the 
promptness  of  Clark's  own  attack,  was  to  have  set 
out  in  the  following  spring  —  of  1779  —  and  Governor 
Abbott  [of  Vincennes]  straining  every  resource  to 
complete  its  organization,  had  proceeded,  a  few  days 
before  the  arrival  of  the  Americans,  from  Vincennes 
to  Detroit  in  order  to  attend  to  the  equipment  of  the 
regulars  and  Canadian  volunteers  destined  to  co-oper- 


624       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

ate  with  the  savage  host  in  this  grand  movement,  leav 
ing  the  latter  place,  with  all  the  artillery  and  stores 
there  collected,  under  the  care  of  the  local  militia.  It 
was  absolutely  necessary  for  Clark  to  gain  possession 
of  this  place  [Vincennes]  ;  for  he  could  not  permit  so 
strong  a  post  within  striking  distance  of  his  present 
position  to  remain  in  the  enemy's  hands.  Besides,  the 
possession  of  these  very  stores  and  guns  had  been 
specified  in  his  instructions  as  one  of  the  great  results 
expected  from  the  enterprise. 

[It  was  the  stores  and  guns  at  Kaskaskia,  not  Vin 
cennes,  that  were  hoped  for,  in  the  instructions  given 
by  Governor  Henry  to  Clark.] 

''But  how  was  it  to  be  done?  After  the  detach 
ment  under  Bowman  was  made  [to  go  to  Cahokia  j, 
he  [Clark]  had  remaining  with  him  less  than  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty  men.  He  dared  not  make  any  further 
division  of  this  small  force,  lest  it  should  be  cut  off  in 
detail  by  the  savages,  large  parties  of  whom  were  hov 
ering  around  him  at  a  distance.  [But  there  were  no 
Indians  hovering  around  Clark  at  this  time.]  While 
meditating  on  his  desperate  situation  the  good  priest 
Gibault  happened  to  pay  him  a  visit,  and  being  made 
acquainted  with  his  perplexity,  at  once  volunteered 
to  relieve  him  of  it  by  going  to  the  people  of  Vin 
cennes,  who  were  also  under  his  pastoral  charge,  and 
inducing  them,  like  their  neighbors  of  Kaskaskia  and 
Cahokia,  to  throw  off  the  English  yoke,  and  accept  the 
protection  of  Virginia.  The  result  justified  his  confi 
dence.  The  people  eagerly  complied  with  his  advice, 
and  in  an  hour  the  English  flag  was  hauled  down  and 
the  stars  and  stripes  run  up  over  the  fort,  much  to  the 
amazement  of  the  Indians,  who  were  assembled  around 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       625 

the  place  in  great  numbers."     (Coleman,  in  Harper 's 
Magazine,  vol.  XXII,  p.  792.) 

That  Rocheblave  had  taken  any  steps  towards 
"organizing  an  expedition  against  Kentucky"  previous 
to  Clark's  arrival  at  Kaskaskia  is  error ;  neither  had 
Lieutenant  Governor  Abbott  at  Vincennes  exerted  him 
self  in  any  manner  to  forward  such  a  movement ;  nor 
was  his  return  to  Detroit  in  any  wise  to  aid  such  an 
undertaking ;  and  for  the  best  of  reasons :  no  such  en 
terprise  was  in  contemplation  (much  less  in  actual 
preparation)  either  at  Kaskaskia,  Vincennes  or  De 
troit.  What,  as  will  hereafter  be  seen,  was,  at  one 
time,  subsequently,  much  desired  (and  possibly, 
suggested)  by  Hamilton  is  made  to  travel  backwards, 
forming  a  story  wholly  without  foundation.  And  it 
is  substantially  the  same  fiction  that  some  writers  have 
asserted  as  fact,  and  that  the  information  was  brought 
to  Clark  by  the  two  "spies"  sent  by  him  to  the  Illinois 
in  the  year  1777. 


NOTE  LIL 

AS  TO  M.   CERRE  AND  HIS  TREATMENT  BY  CLARK. 

Mann  Butler,  in  his  History  of  Kentucky,  says : 
"During  the  night  [of  the  capture  of  Kaskaskia] 
several  persons  were  sent  for  to  obtain  intelligence; 
but  little  information  could  be  procured  beyond  what 
had  already  been  received  except  that  a  considerable 
body  of  Indians  lay  at  this  time  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Cahokia,  about  sixty  miles  higher  up  the  Missis 
sippi ;  and  that  M.  Cerre   (the  father  of  the  present 
Madame  Auguste  Chouteau)  of  St.  Louis,  the  princi- 
40 


626       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

pal  merchant  of  Kaskaskia,  was  at  that  time  one  of  the 
most  inveterate  enemies  of  the. Americans.  This  gen 
tleman  had  left  town  before  Clark  had  captured  it,  and 
was  now  in  St.  Louis  on  his  way  to  Quebec  whence  he 
had  lately  returned,  in  the  prosecution  of  extensive 
commercial  operations ;  his  family  and  an  extensive 
assortment  of  merchandise  were  in  Kaskaskia.  By 
means  of  these  pledges  in  his  power,  Colonel  Clark 
thought  to  operate  upon  M.  Cerre,  whose  influence  was 
of  the  utmost  consequence  in  the  condition  of  Ameri 
can  interest,  if  it  could  be  brought  to  be  exerted  in  its 
favor.  With  the  view  of  gaining  this  gentleman,  a 
guard  was  immediately  placed  around  his  house  and 
seals  placed  on  his  property  as  well  as  on  all  the  other 
merchandise  in  the  place  [pp.  53,  54]." 

And  the  author  also  says : 

"About  this  time,  M.  Cerre  .  .  .  uneasy  that 
his  family  at  Kaskaskia  should  be  the  only  one  placed 
under  guard  and  fearful  of  venturing  into  the  power 
of  the  American  officer  without  a  safe  conduct,  pro 
cured  the  recommendation  of  the  Spanish  Governor  at 
St.  Louis,  as  well  as  [that  of]  the  commandant  at  Ste. 
Genevieve,  supported  by  the  influence  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  citizens,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  this 
security.  It  was  all  in  vain ;  Colonel  Clark  peremp 
torily  refused  it ;  and  intimated  that  he  wished  to  hear 
no  more  such  applications ;  that  he  understood  M. 
Cerre  was  'a  sensible  man'  and  if  he  was  innocent  of 
the  charge  of  inciting  the  Indians  against  the  Ameri 
cans,  he  need  not  be  afraid  of  delivering  himself 
up.  This  backwardness  would  only  increase  the  sus 
picion  against  him.  Shortly  after  this  expression  of 
Clark's  sentiments,  M.  Cerre,  to  whom  they  were  no 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       627 

doubt  communicated,  repaired  to  Kaskaskia  and  with 
out  visiting-  his  family,  immediately  waited  on  Colonel 
Clark,  who  informed  him  that  the  crime  with  which 
he  stood  charged  was  [that  of]  encouraging  the  Indi 
ans  in  their  murders  and  devastations  on  our  frontiers. 
An  enormity,  whose  perpetrators,  continued  the  Amer 
ican  commander,  it  behooved  every  civilized  people  to 
punish  whenever  they  got  such  violators  of  the  laws  of 
honorable  warfare  within  their  power.  To  this  accu 
sation,  M.  Cerre  frankly  replied  that  he  was  a  mere 
merchant,  and  had  never  been  concerned  in  affairs  of 
state  beyond  what  the  interests  of  his  business  re 
quired  ;  moreover,  his  remote  position  had  prevented 
him  from  understanding  the  merits  of  the  war  now 
raging  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain. 
He  defied,  he  said,  any  man  to  prove  that  he  had  en 
couraged  the  Indian  barbarities,  while  many  could  be 
produced  who  had  heard  him  express  his  disapproba 
tion  of  all  such  cruelties ;  though,  at  the  same  time,  it 
was  necessary  to  inform  Colonel  Clark  that  there  were 
numbers  indebted  to  him,  who  might  by  his  ruin  seek 
to  discharge  their  pecuniary  obligations  to  him.  In 
fine,  this  eminent  French  merchant  declared  his  willing 
ness  to  support  the  strictest  inquiry  into  the  only  hein 
ous  charge  against  him.  This  was  every  thing  the 
American  officer  required ;  he  desired  M.  Cerre  to  re 
tire  into  another  room  while  he  sent  for  his  accusers  : 
they  immediately  attended  followed  by  the  greater  part 
of  the  inhabitants.  M.  Cerre  was  summoned  to  con 
front  them  ;  the  former  immediately  shewed  their  con 
fusion  at  his  appearance ;  the  parties  were  told  by  Col 
onel  Clark  that  he  had  no  disposition  to  condemn  a 
man  unheard ;  that  M.  Cerre  was  now  present,  and  he 


628       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

(Clark)  was  ready  to  do  justice  to  the  civilized  world 
by  punishing  him  if  guilty  of  inciting  the  Indians  to 
commit  their  enormities  on  helpless  women  and  chil 
dren.  The  accusers  began  to  whisper  to  one  another 
and  retire ;  until  but  'one  was  left  of  six  or  seven  at 
first ;  this  person  was  asked  for  his  proof,  but  he  had 
none  to  produce,  and  M.  Cerre  was  honorably  acquitted, 
not  more  to  his  own  satisfaction  than  to  that  of  his 
neighbors  and  friends.  He  was  then  congratulated  by 
Colonel  Clark  upon  his  acquittal  and  informed  that, 
although  his  becoming  an  American  citizen  would  be 
highly  acceptable,  yet  if  he  did  not  sincerely  wish  to  do 
so,  he  was  perfectly  at  liberty  to  dispose  of  his  property 
and  to  remove  elsewhere.  Cerre,  delighted  at  the  fair 
and  generous  treatment  he  had  met  with,  immediately 
took  the  oath  of  allegiance  and  became  a  'most  valua 
ble'  friend  to  the  American  cause  [pp.  59-61]." 


NOTE  LIII. 
BOWMAN'S    LETTER    TO    HITE. —  ROCHEBLAVE    SENT   A 

PRISONER    OF    WAR    TO    WILLIAMSBURG. 

In  Bowman's  letter  to  Kite,  the  Captain  says,  after 
mentioning  that  Rocheblave  was  made  prisoner  when 
the  fort  at'Kaskaskia  was  taken,  —  "and  [he,  Roche 
blave,]  is  now  [July  30,  1778  —  the  date  of  his  letter] 
on  his  way  to  Williamsburg  under  strong  guard."  But, 
as  this  was  written  at  Cahokia,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
the  writer  of  the  letter  made  a  mistake  ;  as  he  doubtless 
had  been  informed  that  the  prisoner  would  start  on 
before  that  day, —  when,  as  a  matter  of  fact  he  was 
still  in  his  prison. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       629 

As  Bowman  entrusted  his  letter  to  his  brother, 
who  was  one  of  Clark's  soldiers  who  concluded  to  re 
turn  at  the  expiration  of  his  enlistment,  it  is  probable 
it  was  sent  off  from  Cahokia  the  day  it  was. written. 

The  letter,  as  printed,  has  this  heading:  "Balti 
more,  Dec.  29,  [1778].  Copy  of  a  letter  from  Capt. 
Joseph  Bowman,  at  a  place  called  Illinois  Kaskaskias, 
upon  the  Mississippi,  to  his  friend,  Col.  JOSEPH  HITE, 
of  Frederick  county,  Virginia,  dated  July  30,  1778." 

That  the  letter  was  written  at  Cahokia,  its  con 
tents  clearly  disclose.  The  Captain,  after  mentioning 
the  circumstance  that  there  were  three  hundred  at  that 
village  who  had  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance,  adds :  — 
"and  now  [these  inhabitants]  appear  much  attached  to 
our  cause.  But  as  this  is  in  so  remote  a  part  of  the 
country  [of  the  Illinois]  and  [as]  the  Indians  [are] 
meeting  with  daily  supplies  from  the  British  officers, 
who  offer  them  large  bounties  for  our  scalps  [but  in 
this  he  was  in  error],  I  think  it  prudent  to  leave  a 
guard  here."  [The  italicising  is  mine.] 

And  thus  the  Captain  begins  his  letter :  "I  em 
brace  this  opportunity  to  give  you  some  information  of 
our  proceedings  since  our  embarkation  from  Mononga- 
hela  till  our  arrival  at  this  place"  (The  italicising  in 
this  extract  also  is  mine.) 

Now,  as  the  last  "proceedings"  he  mentions  were 
at  Cahokia, —  it  will  be  seen  that  "at  this  place"  must 
refer  to  that  village. 

"Being  anxious,"  concludes  Bowman,  "to  do 
everything  in  my  power  for  my  country  in  order  to  es 
tablish  peace  and  harmony  once  more  amongst  us — • 
this  will  engage  my  attention  the  ensuing  winter. 


630       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"The  inhabitants  of  this  country  upon  the  Missis 
sippi  have  without  any  kind  of  doubt,  influenced  the 
several  nations  of  Indians  in  this  quarter,  as  also  upon 
the  Ohio;  so  that  ere  it  be  long,  I  flatter  myself  we 
shall  put  a  stop  to  the  career  of  those  bloodthirsty  sav 
ages  who  glory  in  shedding  the  blood  of  the  innocent. 

"For  further  particulars,  I  must  refer  you  to  my 
brother,  the  bearer  hereof.  And  I  am,  etc., 

"JOSEPH  BOWMAN/' 

It  is  a  tradition  (but  an  erroneous  one)  that  Clark 
was  at  first  inclined  to  treat  Rocheblave  leniently ;  that 
he  had,  upon  reflection,  determined  to  give  him  back 
his  slaves ;  and  that  he  invited  his  prisoner  to  dine 
with  himself  and  officers,  when  he  would  take  occasion 
to  restore  them  to  their  owner ;  but  that  the  violent 
and  insulting  language  of  the  deposed  Frenchman  en 
tirely  frustrated  the  Colonel's  benevolent  design.  This 
would  be  creditable  to  Clark's  kindness  of  heart  —  if 
true.  Kentucky  historians  have  added  to  this  account, 
in  a  way  to  make  it  more  emphatic,  but  with  the  result 
of  increasing  its  improbability.  Butler  (History  of 
Kentucky,  p.  64)  says: 

"In  regard  to  this  officer  [Rocheblave]  who  ex 
pressed  himself  with  great  bitterness  of  the  Americans 
and  the  natives  who  had  sided  with  them,  Colonel 
Clark  exerted  himself  very  much  to  procure  a  restor 
ation  to  Mrs.  Rocheblave,  of  his  slaves,  that  had  been 
seized  as  public  plunder.  This  was  attempted  by  in 
viting  him  to  a  dinner  with  some  of  the  officers  as 
well  as  with  his  acquaintance  [sic.]  where  this  restitu 
tion  was,  it  seems,  to  have  been  offered ;  but  it  was 
entirely  frustrated  by  the  violent  and  insulting  Ian- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       631 

guage  of  the  former  commandant ;  he  called  them  a 
parcel  of  rebels,  and  provoked  such  indignation  that  he 
was  immediately  sent  to  the  guard  house;  all  further 
thoughts  of  saving  his  slaves  were  now  abandoned." 

"In  1778,  when  Colonel  George  Rogers  Clark,  and 
his  Virginia  militia,  numbering  less  than  two  hundred 
men,  achieved  the  bloodless  conquest  of  the  Illinois, 
not  a  single  British  soldier  was  found  doing  duty  in 
the  country,  they  having  all  been  withdrawn  to  other 
and  more  important  points.  M.  de  Rocheblave  was 
still  in  command  for  the  English  at  Fort  Gage ;  but, 
owing  to  his  contumacious  behavior,  he  was  sent  a 
prisoner  of  war  to  Virginia."  .  .  .  Wallace:  The 
History  of  Illinois  and  Louisiana  under  the  French 
Rule,  (p.  402). 

But  it  is  evident  that  Rocheblave's  conduct  had 
nothing  to  do  with  his  being  put  in  irons,  with  his 
slaves  being  finally  disposed  of,  nor  with  his  being 
sent  a  prisoner  of  war  over  the  mountains.  The  same 
policy,  as  will  hereafter  be  seen,  was  adopted  by  the 
American  commander  in  even  a  more  notable  instance, 
of  sending  dangerous  prisoners  to  Williamsburg  to  be 
out  of  harm's  way.  It  was,  indeed,  a  policy  that  would 
naturally  have  recommended  itself  to  Clark,  however 
excellent  might  have  been  the  behavior  of  the  cap 
tured. 

The  confiscation  of  Rocheblave's  private  property 
was  not  approved  of  by  Governor  Henry ;  and  he  sub 
sequently  issued  orders  that  it  must  be  restored  to  his 
wife,  if  possible ;  but,  if  that  could  not  be  done,  his 
family  was  to  be  supported  at  the  public  expense  (Ma 
son's  Early  Chicago  and  Illinois,  p.  293.) 


632       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE  LIV. 

CONSPIRACY  OF  A   PARTY  OF   WINNEBAGOES   AND  OTHER 
INDIANS  AT  CAHOKIA  TO  CARRY  OFF  CLARK. 

Butler  (History  of  Kentucky,  pp.  72-75)  gives  the 
following  account  of  the  conspiracy  of  the  Winneba- 
goes  and  other  Indians  at  Cahokia,  to  get  possession 
of  the  person  of  Clark  —  declaring  it  was  their  inten 
tion  to  kill  him : 

"A  party  of  Indians,  composed  of  stragglers  from 
various  tribes,  by  the  name  of  Meadow  Indians,  had 
accompanied  the  other  tribes,  and  had  been  promised 
a  great  reward  if  they  would  kill  Colonel  Clark.  For 
this  purpose  they  had  pitched  their  camp  about  a  hun 
dred  yards  from  Clark's  quarters,  and  about  the  same 
distance  in  front  of  the  fort,  on  the  same  side  of  Ca 
hokia  creek  with  the  one  occupied  by  the  Americans. 
This  creek  was  about  knee-deep  at  the  time,  and  a  plot 
was  formed  by  some  of  the  Indians  to  pass  the  creek 
after  night,  fire  their  guns  in  the  direction  of  the  In 
dians  on  the  other  side  of  the  creek,  and  then  fly  to 
Clark's  quarters,  where  they  were  to  seek  admission 
under  pretense  of  fleeing  from  their  enemies,  and  put 
Colonel  Clark  and  the  garrison  to  death.  About  one 
o'clock  in  the  morning  while  Colonel  Clark  was  still 
awake  with  the  multiplied  cares  of  his  extraordinary 
situation,  the  attempt  was  made ;  and  the  flying  party, 
having  discharged  their  guns  so  as  to  throw  suspicion 
upon  the  other  Indians,  came  running  to  the  American 
camp  for  protection,  as  they  said,  from  their  enemies, 
who  had  attacked  them  from  across  the  creek.  This, 
the  guard,  who  proved  to  be  in  greater  force  than  was 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      633 

anticipated,  prevented  by  presenting  their  pieces  at  the 
fugitives,  who  were  compelled  to  return  to  their  own 
camp. 

"The  whole  town  and  garrison  were  now  under 
arms,  and  these  Indians,  whom  the  guard  had  recog 
nized  by  moonlight,  were  sent  for,  and  on  being  ex 
amined,  they  declared  it  was  their  enemies  who  had 
fired  upon  them  from  across  the  creek,  and  that  they 
had  sought  shelter  among  the  Americans.  Some  of  the 
French  gentlemen  who  knew  these  Indians  better  than 
the  new  conquerors,  called  for  a  light,  and  discovered 
their  moccasins  and  leggings  to  be  quite  wet  and 
muddy,  from  having  passed  the  creek  over  to  the 
friendly  camps.  This  discovery  quite  confounded  the 
assassins ;  and,  as  there  were  a  great  many  Indians  of 
other  tribes  in  the  town,  Clark  thought  the  opportunity 
favorable  to  convince  them  of  the  closest  union  between 
the  Americans  and  the  French;  he  therefore  surren 
dered  the  culprits  to  the  French,  to  do  what  they 
pleased  with  them.  Secret  instructions  were,  how 
ever,  given  that  the  chiefs  ought  to  be  sent  to  the  guard 
house  in  irons ;  these  directions  were  immediately  ex 
ecuted. 

"In  this  manacled  condition  they  were  brought 
every  day  into  council,  but  not  suffered  to  speak  until 
all  the  other  business  was  transacted,  when  Colonel 
Clark,  ordered  their  irons  to  be  taken  off,  and  told 
them  everybody  said  they  ought  to  die  for  their  treach 
erous  attempt  upon  his  life,  amidst  the  sacred  deliber 
ations  of  a  council.  He  had  determined  to  inflict  death 
upon  them  for  their  base  attempt,  and  they  themselves 
must  be  sensible  that  they  had  justly  forfeited  their 
lives ;  but,  on  considering  the  meanness  of  watching 


634       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

a  bear  and  catching  him  asleep,  he  had  found  out  that 
they  were  not  warriors,  only  old  women  and  too  mean 
to  be  punished  by  the  Big  Knife.  'But,  as  you  ought 
to  be  punished/  said  he,  'for  putting  on  breechcloth 
like  men,  they  shall  be  taken  away  from  you,  plenty 
of  provisions  shall  be  given  you  for  your  journey  home, 
as  women  don't  know  how  to  hunt,  and  during  your 
stay  you  shall  be  treated  in  every  respect  as  squaws.' 
Then,  without  taking  any  further  notice  of  these 
offenders,  Colonel  Clark  turned  off  and  began  to 
converse  with  other  persons. 

"This  treatment  appeared  to  agitate  the  offending 
Indians  to  their  very  hearts.  In  a  short  time  one  of 
their  chiefs  arose  with  a  pipe  and  belt  of  peace,  which 
he  offered  to  Clark,  and  made  a  speech ;  but  he 
[Clark]  would  not  suffer  it  to  be  interpreted,  and  a 
sword  lying  on  the  table,  he  took  it  and  indignantly 
broke  the  pipe  which  had  been  laid  before  him,  declar 
ing  the  Big  Knife  never  treated  with  women.  The 
offending  tribe  then  appeared  busy  in  conversation 
among  themselves ;  when  suddenly  two  of  their  young 
men  advanced  into  the  midddle  of  the  floor,  sat  down, 
and  flung  their  blankets  over  their  heads,  to  the  aston 
ishment  of  the  whole  assembly,  when  two  chiefs  arose, 
and,  with  a  pipe  of  peace,  stood  by  the  side  of  these 
victims,  and  offered  their  lives  to  Colonel  Clark  as  an 
atonement  for  the  offense  of  the  tribe.  They  hoped 
the  sacrifice  would  appease  the  Big  Knife,  and  they 
again  offered  the  pipe.  Clark  would  not  yet  admit  a 
reconciliation  with  them,  but  directed  them  in  a  milder 
tone  than  before  to  be  seated,  for  he  would  have  noth 
ing  to  say  to  them.  After  keeping  them  some  time 
longer  in  suspense,  Colonel  Clark,  deeply  affected 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       635 

by  the  magnanimity  of  these  rude  sons  of  the  forest, 
ordered  the  young  men  to  rise  and  uncover  themselves, 
said  he  was  glad  to  find  there  were  men  in  all  nations, 
and  through  them  granted  peace  to  their  tribe." 


NOTE  LV. 
CLARK'S  COUNCIL  WITH  INDIAN  TRIBES  AT  CAHOKIA. 

According  to  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana 
(ed.  of  1859),  pp.  131-135,  at  the  commencement  of  the 
council  a  speech  was  made  by  an  Indian  chief  and  re 
plied  to  the  next  day  by  Clark.  On  the  third  day  a 
rejoinder  by  the  Indian  speaker  was  listened  to.  All 
these  speeches  were  first  copied  by  Butler  from  thex 
Memoir  of  Clark  before  they  were  seen  by  Dillon. 
(See  his  History  of  Kentucky,  pp.  68-71.)  It  is  clear 
that  Clark  draws  largely  upon  his  imagination  in  giv 
ing  so  circumstantially  these  oratorical  efforts,  after 
many  years  had  elapsed  since  their  delivery. 

Dillon,  in  his  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859,  P-  :35)>  savs 
that  Clark  made  peace,  at  Cahokia,  with  the  Pianke- 
shaws,  Weas,  Kickapoos,  Illinois,  Kaskaskias,  Peori- 
as,  and  branches  of  some  other  tribes  that  inhabited 
the  country  between  Lake  Michigan  and  the  Missis 
sippi.  But  the  three  tribes  first  named  —  the  Wabash 
Indians  —  were  not  treated  with  at  Cahokia  ;  and  Clark 
had  previously  made  peace  with  the  Kaskaskias  and 
Peorias. 

"Before  the  close  of  September,"  says  Monnette 
(History  of  the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  vol  I,  p. 
423),  "Colonel  Clark  had  commenced  his  negotiations 


636       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

with  the  Indian  tribes  occupying  the  regions  drained 
by  the  Illinois  and  Upper  Mississippi  rivers.  Believing 
it  impolitic,  and  a  mistaken  estimate  of  Indian  charac 
ter,  to  invite  them  to  treaties  of  peace  and  friendship, 
he  lost  no  opportunity  of  impressing  them  with  the 
power  of  the  Americans  and  the  high  sense  of  honor 
which  regulated  all  their  military  operations,  no  less 
than  the  unalterable  determination  to  punish  their  ene 
mies.  Long  acquainted  with  the  Indian  character,  he 
maintained  his  dignified  and  stern  reserve  until  they 
should  ask  for  peace  and  treaties ;  and  he  fought  them 
fiercely  until  they  did  sue  for  peace"  (The  italicising 
is  mine). 

But  Colonel  Clark  had  no  contest  with  Indians  at 
this  period  ;  he  did  not  fight  any  —  neither  those  whose 
homes  were  not  far  away  nor  those  who  had  their  vil 
lages  upon  the  Illinois  and  Upper  Mississippi  rivers, 
or  elsewhere.  The  nearest  approach  to  any  hostilities 
was  when  some  "Puans  [Winnebagoes]  and  others" 
endeavored,  at  Cahokia,  to  carry  off  Clark,  the  latter 
making  promises  of  the  savages  who  engaged  in  the 
undertaking,  putting  some  of  the  greatest  chiefs  among 
them  in  irons,  but  soon  releasing  them,  as  already  fully 
explained. 

"  'Domestic  affairs,'  says  the  Colonel  [Clark],  'be 
ing  thus  pretty  well  settled,  the  Indian  department 
came  next  to  be  the  object  of  my  attention.'  This,  in 
deed,  was  the  most  delicate  and  difficult  portion  of  his 
task.  To  win  the  friendship,  or  at  least  secure  the 
neutrality  of  the  Indians  was  one  of  the  primary  ob 
jects  of  the  campaign.  The  Chippewas,  Ottawas,  Pot- 
tawattamies.  Sacs,  Foxes  —  in  a  word,  nearly  all  the 
leading  tribes  of  the  West  —  were  represented  in  the 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       637 

repeated  conferences  held  between  Col.  Clark  and  the 
savages,  delegations  of  braves  in  some  instances  trav 
eling  a  distance  of  five  hundred  miles  in  order  to  be 
present."  —  John  Moses,  in  Illinois:  Historical  and 
Statistical,  vol.  I,  p.  153.  But  no  nation  cast  of  the 
Wabash  or  Mauince,  in  the  West,  was  represented  at 
any  conference  held  by  Clark. 

"Those  nations  who  have  treated  with  me  have  be 
haved  since  very  well,  to-wit :  the  Piankeshaws,  Kick- 
apoos,  Weas,  of  the  Wabash  river ;  the  Kaskaskias, 
Peorias,  Mitchigamies,  Foxes,  Sacs,  Opays,  Illinois 
and  Pones  [Pottawattamies],  nations  of  the  Missis 
sippi  and  Illinois  rivers.  Part  of  the  Chippewas  have 
also  treated  and  are  peaceable."  —  Clark  to  the  Gov 
ernor  of  Va.,  Apr.  29,  1779,  from  Kaskaskia. 

The  list  in  Clark's  letter  to  Mason  (Clark's  Cam 
paign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  41)  includes  the  Winnebagoes 
("Puans")  and  Miamis,  also  the  Ottowas  and  one  or 
two  others  —  all  treated  with  at  Cahokia. 


NOTE  LVL 

CLARK'S  INTERVIEW  WITH  THE  CHIPPEWA  CHIEF 
BLACKBIRD. 

Concerning  Clark's  interview  with  the  Chippewa 
chief,  Blackbird,  Butler  (History  of  Kentucky,  pp.  75, 
77)  says: 

"Colonel  Clark  now  turned  his  attention  to  Sa- 
quina,  or  Blackbird,  and  Nakioun,  two  chiefs  of  the 
Sotairs  [Chippewas]  and  Ottawa  tribes  bordering  on 
Lake  Michigan.  The  former  of  these  chiefs  had  been 


638       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

in  St.  Louis,  when  Clark  first  invaded  the  country,  and 
not  trusting  to  Spanish  protection,  had  returned  to 
his  tribe  ;  though  he  had  sent  a  letter  to  Clark  apologiz 
ing  for  his  absence.  He  was  found  on  inquiry  to  pos 
sess  so  much  influence  over  considerable  bands  about 
St.  Joseph's,  of  Lake  Michigan,  that  Colonel  Clark 
departed  from  his  usual  distant  policy  and  invited  him 
fay  a  special  messenger  to  come  to  Kaskaskia.  The  in 
vitation  was  immediately  complied  with  and  Black 
bird  visited  Colonel  Clark  with  only  eight  attendants. 
Aiter  the  party  had  recovered  from  their  fatigue, 
preparations  were  made  as  usual  for  a  council,  with 
the  ceremonies  generally  practiced.  These  were  no 
sooner  noticed  by  the  sagacious  chief  than  he  informed 
Colonel  Clark  that  he  came  on  business  of  importance 
to  both,  and  desired  that  no  time  might  be  lost  on  cer 
emonies.  This  chief  declared  he  wanted  much  con 
versation  with  Colonel  Clark,  and  would  prefer  sitting 
at  the  same  table  with  him  to  all  the  parade  and  for 
mality  which  could  be  used.  Accordingly  a  room  was 
prepared  for  this  straightforward  and  direct  chief  and 
his  American  cotemporary :  they  both  with  their  seats 
at  the  same  table,  having  interpreters  seated  to  the 
right  and  left.  Black  Bird  opened  the  conference  by 
saying,  'he  had  long  wished  to  enjoy  a  conversation 
with  a  chief  of  our  nation :  he  had  conversed  with 
prisoners,  but  he  could  not  confide  in  them  for  they 
seemed  to  be  afraid  to  speak  the  truth.  That  he  had 
engaged  in  the  war  against  us  was  true,  although 
doubts  of  its  justice  always  crossed  his  mind  owing  to 
our  appearing  to  be  the  same  nation  with  the  British. 
Some  mystery  hung  over  the  matter  which  he  wanted 
removed ;  his  anxiety  was  to  hear  both  sides,  while  he 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       639 

had  hitherto  only  been  able  to  hear  one.'  Clark  readily 
undertook  to  satisfy  this  inquisitive  chief  and  com 
pelled  as  he  was  to  employ  smiles  for  so  many  ideas 
foreign  to  barbarous  society,  it  took  him  nearly  half  a 
day  to  answer  the  inquiries  of  the  Indian.  This  was 
accomplished  to  his  entire  satisfaction  and  he  expressed 
himself  convinced  that  the  Americans  were  perfectly 
right ;  he  was  glad  that  their  old  friends  the  French, 
had  united  their  armies  with  ours,  and  the  Indians 
ought  to  do  the  same.  But  as  we  did  not  wish  this,  his 
countrymen  he  thought,  ought  at  least  to  be  neutral. 
He  was  convinced  the  English  must  be  afraid  because 
they  gave  the  Indians  so  many  goods  to  fight  for  them  ; 
his  sentiments,  he  said,  were  fixed  in  our  favor ;  and 
he  would  no  longer  listen  to  the  offers  of  the  English. 
He  would  put  an  end  to  the  war,  and  would  call  all  his 
young  men  in  as  soon  as  he  could  get  home  and  have 
an  opportunity  of  explaining  the  nature  of  the  war  to 
them. 

"This  display  of  the  chief's  sentiments  may  well  be 
conceived  to  have  given  Clark  the  utmost  satisfaction ; 
and  he  promised  to  write  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia 
respecting  his  friendly  conduct,  and  to  have  him  reg 
istered  among  the  friends  of  the  Big  Knife.  In  a  few 
days  the  chief  set  off  for  his  native  forests  accompan 
ied  at  his  desire  by  an  agent  of  Clark.  A  couple  of 
pack-horses  were  loaded  with  provisions  and  presents 
for  this  sagacious  and  sensible  Indian,  who  continued  a 
faithful  friend  to  American  interests." 


640       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE  LVII. 


Clark  speaks  of  De  Leyba  as  "Lieutenant-Gov 
ernor  of  Western  Illinois,"  instead  of  "Lieutenant- 
Governor  of  Upper  Louisiana ;"  as  the  former  desig 
nation  was  still  in  vogue. 

"Fernando  de  Leyba,  governor  of  the  western 
part  of  the  Illinois  [that  is,  of  that  part  lying  west  of 
the  Mississippi,  which  then  belonged  to  Spain]  was  in 
command  at  St.  Louis  from  June  14,  1777,  to  June 
27,  1780,  when  he  died.  According  to  traditional  re 
port  in  St.  Louis  generally  accepted  (see  Primm,  p. 
10,  who,  however,  exaggerates),  De  Leyba  was  given 
to  conviviality  and  indulged  occasionally  over  much 
in  the  wine  cup.  Clark  himself  was  fond  of  pleasure 
and  his  glass.  It  is  not  unlikely  the  'intimacy'  he 
speaks  of  and  the  'freedom  almost  to  excess,'  that  gave 
the  greatest  pleasure  were  illustrated  in  social  enter 
tainments  in  which  he  and  De  Leyba,  boon  companions 
for  the  time  being,  put  aside  reserve  and  enjoyed 
themselves  freely.  On  these  occasions,  Clark  probably 
preferred  the  stronger  stimulant  to  which  he  was  ac 
customed,  and  the  Spaniard  chose  the  weaker,  but 
equally  effective,  juice  of  the  grape. 

"There  was  besides  another  tie  uniting  Clark  and 
De  Leyba  .  .  .  namely,  Francis  Vigo.  This  gen 
tleman  early  interested  himself  in  Clark's  success  and 
was  practically  active  in  promoting  it ;  their  relations 
were  certainly  intimate.  Vigo  was  not  only  a  personal 
friend  of  De  Leyba,  but  connected  with  him  in  busi 
ness.  When  the  Spanish  Lieutenant  Governor  died  he 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       641 

appointed  Vigo  his  testamentary  executor."  .  .  . 
[O.  W.  Collett,  in  Magazine  'of  Western  History,  vol. 
I  (Feb.  1885),  p.  2;4n.] 

Collett  thinks  that  when  this  conviviality  existed 
in  so  marked  a  manner  between  the  two  was  when 
Clark  was  at  Cahokia. 


NOTE  LVIII. 

BRITISH    ACCOUNTS   OF   THE   TREATMENT   ACCORDED 
ROCHEBLAVE   AND   CERRE'    BY   COLONEL   CLARK. 

The  news  of  the  bad  treatment  accorded  to  M. 
Cerre'  (and  Rocheblave  as  well)  upon  Clark's  first 
arrival  in  the  Illinois,  as  it  reached  the  far-away  post 
of  Michilimackinac,  stirred  a  feeling  of  sympathy  in 
the  breast  of  at  least  one  warm  friend  of  these  men. 
This  sympathiser  was  one  M.  Monforton,  a  French 
man  of  ability.  In  writing  to  Cerre',  subsequently, 
and  after  he  (Monforton)  had  gone  from  Michilimack 
inac  to  Detroit,  he  expressed,  in  a  most  intelligent 
manner  his  regret  that  affairs  had  turned  out  so  badly 
at  the  Illinois.  "I  feel  warmly  and  I  share  all  the 
pain  of  the  bad  treatment."  said  he,  "which,  with  M 
Rocheblave,  you  have  experienced  from  those  who 
treat  as  enemies  the  persons  whom  honor  and  religion 
held  submissive  and  faithful  to  their  Prince."  Mon 
forton  deplored,  also,  "the  fatal  movement  in  which, 
without  help,"  Rocheblave  had  been  "surprised  and 
taken,"  which  he  declared  was,  as  reported,  "of  a 
fury  less  to  intimidate  than  provoke  those  whom  Cap 
tain  Lord  had  confided  to  his  care."  "Could  Captain 
Lord,"  asks  Monforton,  "have  choseri  a  successor  who 

41 


642       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

was  more  worthy  of  favor? — for,  by  his  love  of  jus 
tice,  his  zeal  for  the  public  good,  and  his  disinterested 
ness,  he  has  justly  merited  this  title  from  the  inhabi 
tants  of  the  Illinois."  What  advantage,"  he  also  asks, 
can  the  people  of  the  Illinois  draw  from  an  independ 
ence  such  as  the  Virginians  would  offer  them  ? 

The  conduct  of  the  Americans  in  their  invasion 
of  Arkansas  and  other  posts,  their  contraventions  of 
the  rights  of  men  in  respect  to  M.  Rocheblave,  "whose 
sole  motive  was  to  render  himself  useful  to  a  people 
among  whom  a  long  residence  had  rendered  him  dear," 
—  was,  in  Monforton's  judgment,  particularly  repre 
hensible. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  Illinois  towns,  Monforton 
declared,  are  promised  more  real  advantages  than  those 
which  they  could  procure  from  the  British  government. 
That  they  had  not  enjoyed  what  was  really  their  due,- 
under  the  command  of  Colonel  Wilkins,  he  was  ready 
to  admit ;  but  the  proofs  the  people  had  given  of  their 
attachment  to  Captain  Lord,  the  regret  which  they 
testified  at  his  departure,  seemed,  to  the  writer,  to 
have  destroyed  the  false  ideas  which  his  predecessor 
had  raised  in  their  minds;  and  if,  like  himself,  they 
had  occasions  for  knowing  the  spirit  and  character  of 
the  British  nation,  they  would  be  fully  convinced  "that 
the  change  with  which  they  are  threatened  cannot 
but  be  fatal  in  its  consequences."*  However,  these 
strictures,  if  they  ever  reached  the  ears  of  M.  Cerre'. 
found  him  deaf  to  all  appeals  from  his  intelligent 
countryman.  But  the  writer  thereof  had,  as  Hamilton 
afterward  expressed  himself,  "done  what  was  in  his 
power  to  open  the  eyes  of  the  French  people  at  the 

*  MonfortoiV  to  Cerre,  Sept.  22,  1778,  —  Haldimand  MSS, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       643 

Illinois".      The    Lieutenant    Governor    declared    that 
Monforton  was  "a  man  of  sense  and  information  far 
above    the    common    standard    in    this    country"*  - 
which,  it  is  evident,  was  praise  well  merited. 

Clark's  treatment  of  Rocheblave  is  spoken  of  by 
Hamilton  years  after  with  indignation  and,  probably, 
with  exaggeration. 

"On  the  6th  [8th]  of  August,  1778,  intelligence 
was  brought  me  by  Mr.  Francis  Maisonville,  of  the 
attack  of  the  Illinois  by  Colonel  Clark;  the  shameful 
treatment  of  Monsieur  de  Rocheblave,  who  was  laid 
in  irons,  and  put  into  a  place  where  hogs  had  been 
kept,  ankle  deep  in  filth ;  the  indignities  offered  Mad 
ame  de  Rocheblave,  [and  of]  the  destruction  of  his 
[Rocheblave's]  property."  .  . —  Hamilton  to  Haldi- 
mand  July  6,  1781  —  Germain  MSS. 

"On  the  6th  [8th]  of  August  [1778],  I  received  in 
telligence  of  the  rebels  having  pushed  considerable 
detachments  to  the  Illinois,  where  they  made  prisoner, 
Mons.  La  Rocheblave,  whose  activity  as  superintend 
ent  occasioned  his  being  treated  with  shameful  indig 
nity." —  Hamilton  to  the  Corn's  of  His  Majesty's 
Treasury,  1783,  MS. 

And  De  Peyster,  soon  after  the  events  transpired, 
wrote  thus : 

"MICHILIMACKINAC,  31   August,   1778. 

"SiR :  —  I  have  this  moment  received  a  letter  from  Mons'r 
Chevalier,  of  St.  Joseph  informing  me  that  the  rebels  are 
in  possession  of  all  the  Illinois ;  that  the  party  at  Kaskaskia, 
consisting  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  commanded  by  one  Wil 
ling  [Clark]  is  a  part  of  700  on  their  way  for  that  country. 
Willing  [Clark]  has  put  Mr.  De  Rocheblave,  the  commandant, 

*  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  Oct.  4,  1778.  —  Haldimand 
MSS. 


644       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

and  one  Mr.  Cerre,  in  irons  for  having  refused  [to  take] 
the  oaths  of  allegiance  to  the  King  of  Spain,  the  French 
king,  and  the  Congress.  The  traders  in  that  country,  and 
many  of  them  [are]  from  this  post,  are  plundered;  and  the 
whole  country  [is]  in  the  greatest  confusion,  being  at  a  loss 
to  know  which  route  the  rebels  will  take  next. 
"I  am,  etc., 

"A.   S.   DE  PEYSTER." 


NOTE  LIX. 

JOHN    HAY   TO    CAPTAIN    BREHM.       [SEPT.,    1778].* 

"It  is  thought  by  many  that  the  rebels-  that  took  posses 
sion  of  Kayhaskia  and  Cahokia  have  by  this  time  evacuated 
those  places,  but  I  am  of  a  very  different  opinion,  they  had  cer 
tainly  Bills  upon  the  Spanish  Governor  which  were  answered 
on  their  being  produced,  and  they  bought  up  a  quantity  of  cloth 
which  was  to  be  made  up  in  regimentals  for  them :  and  as  we 
have  but  too  much  reason  to  believe  they  were  well  received  by 
the  Inhabitants  they  will  not  lose  their  holds  so  soon,  particu 
larly  while  they  can  get  provisions,  etc.,  for  their  parties  that 
are  or  may  be  in  the  Ohio.  Some  of  the  consequences  will 
be  that  by  the  assistance  of  the  Spaniards  and  well  wishers 
to  the  Monague  the  Indians  in  the  Wabash  Country  will 
probably  remain  nuter  until  they  find  themselves  sufficiently 
supplied  with  necessaries,  from  that  quarter  and  there  we 
may  expect  they  will  be  at  least  overbearing,  and  perhaps 
insolent,  which  will  affect  those  nearer  in  so  much  as  to 
require  more  expence  and  great  diligence  to  keep  them  to  their 
duty.  The  four  Nations  of  the  Lakes  viz.  The  Autawas, 
Chippewas,  Hurons  and  Powtowattamies  have  shewn  great 
attachment  to  His  Majesty  and  Government  and  Shanawese, 
Mingoes  and  part  of  the  Delawares  have  been  very  active, 
they  are  stimulated  as  much  by  the  late  incursion  of  the 
Virginians  under  Lord  Dunmore  and  their  cruelties  since,  as 

*  From  the  Haldimand  MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      645 

anything  else;  some  of  them  took  up  the  Hatchet  before  they 
were  asked,  the  rest  upon  deliberation  and  in  assurance  of 
their  being  supported  by  Government  and  I  must  confess  there 
never  was  known  an  Indian  War  carried  on  with  as  little  of 
their  wanton  cruelty ;  indeed  the  sparing  of  the  lives  of  pris 
oners,  the  aged  men,  women  and  children  was  insisted  on 
from  the  first,  and  they  have  paid  great  attention  to  it,  and 
never  went  without  some  reward  for  their  complyance. 

"Great  part  of  the  Delawares  are  and  have  been  neuter 
or  rather  in  the  Interest  of  the  Rebells  there  is  one  of  that 
Nation  who  is  just  returned  from  War  sitting  by  me  who 
tells  me,  there  has  lately  been  great  quantity  of  provisions 
etc.  brought  to  Fort  Pitt  and  The  Great  Cantiana,  which 
may  be  the  case  as  they  intend  erecting  Forts  at  the  Falls  and 
other  places  on  the  Ohio,  to  secure  a  Communication  down 
the  Mississippi  one  John  Campbell  of  Fort  Pitt  received  a 
commission  from  the  Congress  last  winter  with  orders  to 
collect  or  raise  men,  for  that  purpose,  they  have  three  Forts 
at  Kentuckie  which  are  great  eye  sores  to  the  Indians  being 
in  the  heart  of  their  best  hunting  country.  There  is  a  body 
of  Indians  now  out  there  accompanied  by  Lieut  Dequindre 
and  ten  Volunteers  of  the  Indian  Department  from  this  place 
we  expect  daily  to  hear  what  they  have  done. 

"This  is  so  remote  a  place  and  I  am  so  small  a  subject 
that  it  may  appear  presumption  in  me  to  form  opinion  of 
futurity  yet  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  this  place  will  become 
of  more  consequence  in  a  little  time  than  you  or  I  were 
aware  of  when  we  used  to  talk  of  the  growth  of  this  country, 
the  principal  fort  the  Rebels  have  below  Fort  Pitt  is  at  the 
great  Canhawa  Garrison  by  a  camp  any  of  their  regulars  and 
some  country  people  —  they  have  several  more  between  that 
and  Fort  Pitt,  but  not  so  considerable.  We  have  many  more 
parties  out  but  Governor  Hamilton  (for  want  of  fresh  In 
structions  or  orders)  has  confined  himself  to  the  tenor  of 
those  just  received  viz.  carrying  continual  alarms  to  draw 
the  attention  of  the  rebells  to  the  Frontiers  preventing  the 
resettling  the  country  already  abandoned,  and  harrassing  those 
destined  to  keep  up  a  communication  between  this  small  fort, 
which  you  may  imagine  they  have  done  as  three  different 


646       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

parties  .sent  from  this  since  Spring  have  taken  thirty  three 
prisoners  and  eighty  scalps  with  the  loss  of  8  principal 
Hurons,  one  Ottawa  and  one  Powtawatame  14  of  the  different 
Nations  wounded  and  what  you  may  believe  as  a  fact  there 
has  been  but  one  instance  of  savage  cruelty  exercised  upon 
any  of  them.  Seventeen  of  the  above  prisoners  were  de 
livered  up  here,  but  there  are  many  more  among  them  that 
as  yet  we  know  nothing  of. 

"I   am,   Dear   Brehm,   Your   real   well   wisher  and  most 
humble  servant, 


NOTE  LX. 

OF    WEA    AND    "THE    MIAMIS." 

Wea,*  "a  miserable  place,"  as  Hamilton  afterward 
designated  it,  was  located  on  the  north  side  of  the  Wa- 
bash,  just  below  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Lafay 
ette,  Indiana.  It  stood  about  seventy  yards  from  the 
river  -and  consisted  of  a  few  cabins  surrounded  by 
pickets.  During  the  Revolution  it  was  frequently 
spoken  of  by  English  writers  as  "Ouiatanon" — of 
which  Wea  ("Ouia"),  was  an  abbreviation.  The  term 
"the  Miamis"  employed  by  Hamilton  in  this  letter  cited 
in  the  text,  as  of  —  was  one  in  general  use  in  the  West 
during  the  Revolution  to  indicate  the  principal  village 
of  the  Miami  Indians.  It  was  at  the  head  of  the 
Maumee  —  the  site  of  the  present  city  of  Fort  Wayne, 
Indiana,  and  was  the  beginning  of  the  portage  leading 
across  to  the  waters  of  the  Wabash.  It  was  a  post  of 
some  importance,  one  of  the  dependencies  of  Detroit. 

"He  [Hamilton]  believes  he  can  set  out  the  1st  of 
October,  and  asks  me  to  address  my  letters  under  cover 
to  Captain  Lernoult.  As  he  sees  the  Indians  do  not 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       647 

look  upon  the  Virginians  with  pleasure,  but  that  the 
French  appear  to  favor  them,  there  is  no  time  to  lose ; 
he  will  try  to  anticipate  my  views  in  preventing  the 
rebels  from  settling  themselves  solidly  at  the  Illinois." 
—  (Remarks  of  Haldimand  on  Hamilton's  Letters: 
Haldimand  MSS.) 


NOTE  LXI. 

HAMILTON'S   EXPEDITION   TO   INFLAME   THE   SAVAGES 
AGAINST  THE  AMERICANS. 

Many  were  the  expedients  employed  by  Hamil 
ton  to  inflame  the  savages  against  the  Americans  and 
to  win  them  over  to  the  side  of  Britain.  On  one  occa 
sion,  the  Indians  were  drawn  up  in  two  lines,  extend 
ing  from  the  Detroit  river  to  the  woods :  their  kettles 
and  fires  were  between  the  lines.  An  ox  was  killed, 
and  his  head  cut  off :  a  large  tomahawk  was  then 
struck  into  the  head,  and  thus  loaded,  it  was  presented 
to  the  Governor.  He  was  requested  to  sing  his  war 
song  along  the  whole  line  of  the  Indians  —  for  he  had 
a  song  of  his  own.  The  ox's  head  represented  the 
head  of  an  American ;  and  as  the  British  were  the 
principals  in  the  war,  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  take 
up  the  tomahawk  first.  [See  Ontwa,  the  Son  of  the 
Forest.  A  Poem.  (New  York:  1882),  pp.  124,  125. 
The  poem  was  written  by  Col.  Henry  Whiting;  the 
Notes  are  by  Lewis  Cass.] 


648       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE  LXIL 

CONCERNING   CAPT.   LERNOULl's  AID  TO  HAMILTON  AND 
THE  ARRIVAL  OF  CAPTAIN   BIRD  IN  DETROIT. 

"Captain  Lernoult  who,  at  that  time,  commanded 
the  detachment  of  the  King's  (8th)  regiment,  assisted 
me  greatly  in  forwarding  everything  necessary  to  be 
provided,  and  gave  permission  to  Lieutenant  Shourd, 
two  sergeants,  and  thirty  [one]  rank  and  file,  (who 
were  all  volunteers),  to  accompany  me."  —  Hamilton 
to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781  —  Germain  MSS.  To  be 
added  to  the  regulars  were  one  lieutenant  fire  worker 
and  two  matrosses. 

"His  [Hamilton's]  preparations  were  finally  com 
pleted,  and  he  waited  only  for  the  arrival  of  Captain 
Bird  and  fifty  of  the  King's  Regiment  from  Niagara. 
They  came  on  October  7,  1778,  and  on  the  same  day 
Hamilton  and  his  party  set  out  for  Vincennes."  — 
Farmer's  History  of  Detroit  and  Michigan,  p.  250. 
The  arrival  of  Bird  resulted  in  Hamilton  securing  a 
promise  of  the  regulars  mentioned  by  him,  but  the 
Lieutenant-Governor  had  not  awaited  the  Captain's 
coming.  Lernoult's  permit  was  given  after  Bird 
reached  his  destination  and  too  late  for  the  marching 
at  once  of  the  detachment  with  Hamilton. 


NOTE  LXIII. 

AS  TO  THE  FORCE  WHICH   LEFT  DETROIT  UNDER. 
HAMILTON. 

"To  dispossess  the  Americans  of  the  Illinois  coun 
try  and   Vincennes,"   says   Bancroft    [History  of  the 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       649 

United  States  (eel.  of  1885),  Vol.  V.,  p.  312],  "on  the 
seventh  of  October,  Lieutenant-Governor  Hamilton 
left  Detroit  with  regulars  and  volunteers  and  three 
hundred  and  fifty  warriors  picked  by  their  chiefs  out 
of  thirteen  different  nations."  This  error  as  to  the 
number  of  Indians  (some  writers  enumerating  more, 
some  less)  is  also  to  be  found  on  the  pages  of  several 
Western  histories.  As  an  instance : 

"It  was  not  long  before  this  state  of  things  [Cap 
tain  Helm  having  possession  of  Fort  Sackville,  at  Vin- 
cennes,  'with  only  two  soldiers  and  a  few  volunteer 
militia'  and  the  whole  regular  force  under  Clark,  at 
Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia  being  reduced  to  less  than  one 
hundred  men]  was  made  known  to  Governor  Hamil 
ton,  commandant  at  Detroit.  Alarmed  at  the  rapid 
success  of  the  Virginia  troops,  and  mortified  at  the 
disasters  of  the  British  arms,  he  determined  to  make 
an  energetic  invasion  of  the  Illinois  country,  and  re 
trieve  the  honor  of  his  Majesty's  arms  by  the  recap 
ture  of  all  the  posts  on  the  Wabash  and  [in  the]  Illi 
nois,  and  by  leading  Colonel  Clark  and  his  followers 
captive  to  Detroit. 

"Having  assembled  six  hundred  warriors,  in  ad 
dition  to  his  force  of  eighty  regular  soldiers  and  some 
Canadian  militia,  he  set  out  upon  the  expedition  to 
Vincennes."  (Monnette's  History  of  the  Valley  of  the 
Mississippi,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  424,  425.) 

There  were  three  interpreters  from  the  Indian  De 
partment,  each  ranking  as  captain  who  were  to  go 
upon  the  expedition:  Charles  Reaume,  Isidore  Chesne 
and  Alexander  McKee.  There  were  also  other  "In 
dian  officers"  from  the  same  Department  —  Lieuten 
ants  Fontenoy  De  Quindre,  Lepiconiere  De  Quindre, 


650       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Ponchartrain  De  Quindre  and  Joseph  Bondy.  Augus 
tine  Lefoi  and  Amable  St.  Cosme  were  armorers  and 
Nicholas  Lasalle  storekeeper.  (Return  of  Hamilton, 
of  Sept.  30,  1778  —  Haldimand  MSS.)  But  Captain 
McKee  had,  as  already  shown,  gone  to  the  Shawanese, 
to  engage  warriors  from  that  nation  for  the  enter 
prise,  preceded  by  Captain  Chesne,  who  was  with  a 
war-party  engaged  in  besieging  one  of  the  Kentucky 
forts ;  and,  also,  commanding  the  same  party,  was 
Lieut.  Fontenoy  De  Quindre. 

The  officers  commanding  the  volunteer  militia  were 
captains  Normond  McLeod  and  Alexis  Maisonville; 
Lieutenants  Jacob  Schieffelin,  Joncaire  Chabert, 
Chevalier  Chabert,  Pierre  St.  Cosme  and  Medard 
Gamelin  —  the  latter  acting  as  adjutant:  Over  Cap 
tain  Lamothe's  company  and  the  militia  was  placed 
Jehu  Hay  as  major,  who,  as  Deputy  Indian  Agent, 
had  also  charge  of  a  large  amount  of  Indian  presents, 
which  were  to  be  taken  along  to  conciliate  the  sav 
ages. 

A  man  by  the  name  of  Chapman  went  as  quarter 
master  and  John  McBeath  as  surgeon  to  the  expedi 
tion;  Antoine  Bellefeuille  as  interpreter;  in  addition 
to  those  before  mentioned,  Charles  Lovain,  as  com 
missary  of  provisions  at  the  Miamis  —  head  of  Mau- 
mee ;  Adhemar  St.  Martin,  as  commissary  for  the  de 
tachment  and  Indians;  Francis  Maisonville,  as  boat- 
master  ;  and  Amos  Ansly,  as  master  carpenter.  (Ham 
ilton's  Return,  loc.  cit.)  Farmer,  in  his  History  of  De 
troit  and  Michigan,  p.  250,  says  Hamilton  was  accom 
panied  by  Philip  Dejean,  his  secretary.  But  it  was 
some  months  before  Dejean  followed  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       651 

St.  Martin  is  usually  mentioned  by  his  first  or 
given  name,  but  not  always :  "Late  in  November, 
1775,  the  Chippewa  was  wrecked  on  the  southern  coast 
of  Lake  Erie.  Lieut.  Col.  Caldwell  judged  it  expe 
dient  to  have  her  cargo  destroyed.  Mr.  Adhemar  St. 
Martin  was  the  principal  sufferer  on  this  occasion, 
his  loss  [being]  upwards  of  four  hundred  pounds 
[sterling].  A  memorial  from  this  place  was  sent  in 
his  behalf,  but  he  has  never  heard  of  its  having  been 
attended  to.  He  has  a  large  family  with  a  good  rep 
utation  for  its  chief  (almost  only)  support.  His  losses 
by  the  Government,  hitherto  unrepaid,  have  distressed 
him  in  a  degree  I  need  not  paint  to  your  Excellency  — 
loss  of  goods  —  loss  of  opportunity  —  while  the  trad 
ers  on  every  side  are  enriching  themselves  in  this  time 
of  trouble ;  and  he  has  known  upwards  of  one  hundred 
per  cent,  given  for  articles  indispensibly  necessary  to 
the  service  and  rendered  valuable,  by  their  great  scar 
city  —  pitch,  tallow,  salt,  sugar,  soap,  one  half  a  dol 
lar  the  pound.  Powder  £30  and  £40  the  hundred 
weight.  I  humbly  recommend  Mr.  Adhemar,  there 
fore,  to  your  Excellency's  compassionate  feeling  for 
his  distress/' — Hamilton  to  Haldimand  [Sep.  '  5] 
1778  —  Haldimand  MSS.  Of  the  regulars  and  "ir 
regulars"  of  his  force,  Hamilton  afterward  wrote : 

"Our  numbers  .  .  .  were  as  follow :  Of  reg 
ulars,  one  lieutenant  fireworker,  two  matrosses,  — 
[also]  one  lieutenant,  two  sergeants,  thirty  [one]  rank 
and  file  of  the  King's  (8th)  regiment.  Of  irregulars 
[Captain  Lamothe's  company],  one  captain  and  lieu 
tenant,  two  sergeants,  4[o]  rank  and  file."  (Hamil 
ton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781  — Germain  MSS.  On 
the  3Oth  of  September,  1778,  he  enumerates,  of  the 


652       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

militia,  seventy -one  exclusive  of  officers;  of  the  latter 
there  were  one  major,  two  captains,  four  lieutenants, 
one  adjutant,  one  quartermaster,  one  surgeon,  four 
sergeants  —  in  all,  fourteen :  total  of  militia,  eighty- 
five. —  ("Return"  made  at  Detroit  on  the  above  date 
-Haldimand  MSS.) 

When  the  time  came  to  march,  there  was  a  falling 
off  in  the  number  of  Hamilton's  Indian  allies,  so  that, 
as  mentioned  in  the  text,  only  about  seventy  made  their 
appearance. 


NOTE  LXIV. 

HAMILTON'S  FIRST  MARCH  INTENDED  ONLY  TO  REACH 
VINCENNES. 

[Ante,   Chap.   X,  p.  — .] 

Hamilton's  "winter  movement  of  six  hundred 
miles"  only  had  reference  to  the  distance  from  Detroit 
to  Vincennes.  It  seems  from  Hamilton's  words  that 
he  made  no  preparations  for  the  march  beyond  Vin 
cennes ;  as  there  he  would  (as  he  suggested  to  Haldi 
mand)  wait  for  reinforcements;  and,  as  will  hereafter 
be  seen,  additional  supplies  were  to  be  forwarded 
there  as  soon  as  any  could  be  spared  from  Detroit.  A 
recent  writer  says :  "This  news  [that  conveyed  by 
Sir  Guy  Carleton  to  Hamilton,  in  his  letter  of  Sept. 
26,  1777,  wherein  he  states  that  the  conduct  of  the  war 
has  been  taken  entirely  out  of  his  hands,  and  the  man 
agement  of  it  upon  the  Western  frontier  given  to  the 
Lieutenant-Governor]  was  doubtless  pleasing  to  Ham 
ilton,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  soon  after  this, 
he  commenced  to  plan  an  incursion  which  he  would 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       653 

lead  in  person,  Meantime,  on  June  26,  1778,  General 
Haldimancl  succeeded  General  Carleton,  and  Hamil 
ton,  apparently,  began  to  fear  that  his  powers  would 
be  restricted.  In  great  haste  he  completed  his  prep 
arations  for  an  attack  on  the  American  posts.  He  be 
gan  to  talk  of  what  he  proposed  to  do  and  was  confi 
dent  and  even  boastful.  His  preparations  were  finally 
completed  [for  starting  on  his  march  to  Vincennes]." 
(Farmer's  History  of  Detroit  and  Michigan,  p.  250.) 
The  idea  here  conveyed  as  to  Carleton's  meaning  is  ev 
idently  a  mistake.  Sir  Guy  only  referred  to  the  con 
duct  of  the  war  in  Hamilton's  department,  so  far  as 
the  Indians  were  concerned,  as  indicated  in  the  letter 
of  Germain  of  the  26th  of  March,  1777.  In  that  letter 
no  authority  is  given  the  Lieutenant-Governor  to  or 
ganize  an  expedition  of  British  troops,  militia  and  In 
dians  to  go  against  the  Americans. 


NOTE  LXV. 

AS  TO  HELM'S  FORCE  SENT  TO  VINCENNES,  AND  THE 
TIME  OF  STARTING. 

Some  writers  have  stated,  owing  to  supposed  sub 
sequent  developments,  that  Helm  took  with  him  from 
the  Illinois  but  one  soldier.  This  is  clearly  an  error. 

As  already  shown,  Hamilton  at  Detroit  got  intel 
ligence  by  the  middle  of  September  that  the  "rebels" 
had  sent  three  persons  to  Vincennes  from  the  Illinois. 
Clark  says  he  was  not  able  to  spare  many  men  (see 
his  letter  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 
p.  49).  Reliance  is  to  be  placed  upon  the  number  re- 


654       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

ported  to  Hamilton,  as  it  was  coupled  with  other  intel 
ligence  of  undoubted  truthfulness.  (Letter  to  Haldi- 
mand  of  Sep.  16,  1778,  in  the  Haldimand  MSS.) 

It  is  evident  that  August  was  not  far  advanced 
when  the  Captain  started,  as  he  had  reached  Vincennes 
before  the  fourteenth  of  that  month.  (Hamilton  to 
Haldimand,  Jan.  24-28,  1779  —  Haldimand  MSS.) 
In  his  Memoir,  Clark  says  that  Helm  set  out  to  take 
possession  of  his  new  command  about  the  middle  of 
August.  This  is  as  near  the  time  as  he  could  remem 
ber  years  after. 

One  of  Kentucky's  historians  writes :  "Captain 
Leonard  Helm  was  appointed  by  Colonel  Clark  com 
mandant  at  St.  Vincents  [Vincennes]  and  'agent  for 
Indian  affairs  in  the  department  of  the  Wabash.'  This 
officer  was  particularly  recommended  to  Clark  for  his 
knowledge  of  the  department,  and  by  the  general  pru 
dence  of  his  character.  As  Clark  intended  to  place  a 
strong  garrison  at  this  post  when  the  reinforcements 
which  he  expected  from  Virginia  should  arrive,  Cap 
tain  Helm  was  made  fully  acquainted  with  his  plans 
and  received  his  utmost  confidence."  (Butler's  Ken 
tucky,  p  .65.)  But  when  Helm  was  sent  to  Vincennes, 
Clark  was  not  expecting  any  reinforcements  whatever, 
either  "from  Virginia"  or  elsewhere.  He  had  as  yet 
not  heard  a  word  from  the  Virginia  governor  since  his 
arrival  in  the  Illinois. 

Captain  Helm  and  the  two  soldiers  under  him 
were  the  "three  persons"  mentioned  by  Hamilton  to 
Haldimand  in  his  letter  of  the  sixteenth  of  September, 
referred  to  in  a  previous  chapter. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       655 

NOTE  LXVI. 
CAPT.  HELM'S  COUNCIL  WITH  THE  PIANKESHAWS. 

"I  now,  by  Captain  Helm,  touched  him  [the  Grand 
Door]  on  the  same  spring  I  had  done  the  inhabitants 
[on  the  occasion  of  sending  Gibault  to  Vincennes], 
and  sent  a  speech  with  a  belt  of  wampum,  directing  the 
Captain  how  to  manage,  if  the  chief  was  pacifically  in 
clined,  or  otherwise.  .  .  .  He  [Captain  Helm] 
sent  for  the  Grand  Door  and  delivered  my  letter  to 
him.  After  having  read  it,  he  informed  the  Captain 
that  he  was  happy  to  see  him  —  one  of  the  Big  Knife 
chiefs  —  in  this  town:  it  was  here  [at  Vincennes]  that 
he  had  joined  the  English  against  him ;  but  he  con 
fessed  that  he  always  thought  they  looked  gloomy  ;  that 
as  the  contents  of  the  letter  was  a  matter  of  great 
moment,  he  could  not  give  an  answer  for  some  time ; 
that  he  must  collect  his  counsellors  [and  advise  with 
them]  on  the  subject;  and  was  in  hopes  the  Captain 
would  be  patient.  In  short,  he  put  on  all  the  courtly 
dignity,  that  he  was  master  of ;  and  Captain  Helm  fol 
lowing  his  example,  it  was  several  days  before  this 
business  was  finished,  as  the  whole  proceedings  was 
very  ceremonious. 

"At  length  the  Captain  was  invited  to  the  Indian 
council,  and  informed  by  the  Tobacco  [the  Grand  Door 
—  son  of  Tobacco]  that  they  had  mutually  considered 
the  case  in  hand,  and  had  got  the  nature  of  the  war 
between  the  English  and  us  explained  to  their  satis 
faction  ;  that,  as  we  spoke  the  same  language  and  ap 
peared  to  be  the  same  people,  he  always  thought  he 
was  in  the  dark  as  to  the  truth  of  it ;  but  now  the  sky 


656       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

was  cleared  up ;  that  he  found  that  the  Big  Knife  was 
in  the  right;  that  perhaps,  if  the  English  conquered, 
they  would  serve  them  in  the  same  manner  that  they 
intended  to  serve  us  ;  that  his  ideas  were  quite  changed ; 
and  that  he  would  tell  all  the  red  people  on  the  Wabash 
to  bloody  the  land  no  more  for  the  English.  He 
jumped  up,  struck  his  breast,  called  himself  a  man  and 
a  warrior ;  said  that  he  was  now  a  Big  Knife,  and  took 
Captain  Helm  by  the  hand.  His  example  was  followed 
by  all  present,  and  the  evening  was  spent  in  merriment. 
Thus  ended  this  valuable  negotiation  and  [which  re 
sulted  in]  the  saving  of  much  blood.  .  .  . 

In  a  short  time,  almost  the  whole  of  the  various 
tribes  of  the  different  nations  on  the  Wabash,  as  high 
as  the  Quiatenon  [the  Wea]  came  to  Vincennes,  and 
followed  the  example  of  the  Grand  Door  chief.  And 
as  expresses  were  continually  passing  between  Captain 
Helm  and  myself  the  whole  time  of  [the  holding  of] 
these  treaties,  the  business  was  settled  perfectly  to  my 
satisfaction  and  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the  pub 
lic  [that  is,  greatly  to  the  advantage  of  the  Americn 
interests]." — Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed. 
of  1859),  pp.  129-131.  But  Clark's  recollection  was  at 
fault  in  saying  that  nearly  all  the  Wabash  Indians  as 
high  as  Wea  followed  the  Grand  Door's  example  in 
making  peace. 

The  result  of  the  council  with  the  Piankeshaw 
Indians  has  given  rise  to  a  fictitious  story  which  has 
found  its  way  into  print,  wherein  the  meeting  is  spoken 
of  as  having  been  held  at  Kaskaskia  and  that  Clark 
was  holding  the  council  when  the  Grand  Door  (or  Big 
Gate,  as  he  is  therein  called)  made  his  appearance. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       657 

"Relieved  by  the  result  of  Gibatilt's  diplomacy  at 
Vincennes  from  apprehension  of  an  attack  from  that 
quarter,  Clark  turned  his  whole  attention  to  the  pacifi 
cation  of  the  neighboring  Indian  tribes.  His  plan  was 
to  treat  them  with  the  strictest  justice,  adopting  a  man 
ner  kind,  haughty,  or  contemptuous,  as  occasion  der 
manded;  but  always  reserved  and  dignified.  Main 
taining  the  superiority  of  the  white,  he  never  allowed 
himself  to  be  provoked  into  any  unseemly  display  of 
passion  or  excitement, —  seldom  offering  presents ; 
when  he  did  so,  it  was  always  with  the  distinct  under 
standing  that  it  was  a  mere  act  of  grace,  and  not  in 
tended  as  a  bribe.  Though  anxious  to  secure  the  neu 
trality  of  the  tribes  of  the  Illinois,  he  never  condes 
cended  to  invite  them  to  a  council,  and  all  the  over 
tures  for  peace  came  from  those  who  had  begun  the 
war. 

"Yet,  when  necessary,  no  one  could  be  more  per 
suasive,  as  was  proven  by  his  interview  with  the  Big 
Gate  —  so  called  from  having,  when  a  youth,  shot  a 
British  officer  standing  on  the  gate  of  the  fort  at  De 
troit,  during  the  attempt  of  Pontiac  to  surprise  that 
place.  This  chief,  a  deadly  foe  to  the  Big  Knives,  had 
accidently  met  a  party  of  Piankeshaws  coming  to  at 
tend  the  great  council,  which  was  being  held  by  the 
American  commander  at  Kaskaskia ;  and  although  an 
avowed  enemy,  he  resolved  to  accompany  them  in  or 
der  to  behold  this  mighty  chief  of  the  pale-faces  whose 
fame  had  spread  over  the  whole  northwest.  With  the 
most  audacious  calmness,  he  appeared  each  day  in  the 
council,  sitting  conspicuously  in  the  front  of  the  room 
in  full  war-dress,  wearing  the  bloody  belt  he  had  re 
ceived  from  the  English,  and  elaborately  bedecked  in 

42 


658       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

his  war-paint.  Thus  he  continued  to  attend  for  many 
days,  saying  not  a  word  to  the  Americans  nor  they  to 
him.  But  on  the  last  day,  when  the  deliberations  were 
closed,  Clark  addressed  him,  apologizing  for  not  notic 
ing  him  until  the  public  business  was  over.  He  said : 
^Although  they  were  enemies,  still  it  was  the  custom 
of  the  white  men,  when  they  met  in  this  way,  to  treat 
each  other  in  proportion  to  their  exploits  in  war/  On 
this  account  and  because  'he  was  a  great  chief  the  Col 
onel  invited  him  to  dinner  —  a  compliment  never  ex 
tended  to  less  distinguished  men.  The  savage,  taken 
completely  by  surprise,  endeavored  to  decline ;  but 
Clark  would  take  no  denial. 

"At  last  the  chief,  confused  by  such  unexpected 
kindness  and  attention,  and  yielding  to  the  spell  of  a 
superior  mind,  could  contain  his  excited  feelings  no 
longer.  Springing  into  the  middle  of  the  room,  he 
flung  down  the  war-belt  and  a  little  British  flag  that 
he  carried  in  his  bosom,  and  ended  by  stripping  him 
self  of  every  article  of  clothing  except  his  breech-cloth. 
Then  striking  himself  energetically  upon  the  breast, 
he  told  his  hearers  that  'they  all  knew  he  had  been  a 
great  warrior  from  his  youth  up  and  delighted  in  bat 
tle.  That  he  had  been  out  three  times  against  the  Big 
Knives  in  Kentucky,  for  the  British  had  told  him  lies ! 
That  he  was  preparing  for  another  war-party  when 
Clark  arrived,  when  he  determined  to  rest  himself 
awhile,  and  come  and  hear  what  the  Americans  had 
to  say  on  their  side  of  the  question.  Now  he  knew 
the  Big  Knives  were  right,  and  as  an  honest  warrior, 
he  would  no  longer  fight  against  them' ;  upon  which  he 
shook  hands  with  Clark  and  his  officers  and  saluted 
them  as  brothers.  He  ever  afterward  remained  true 


HISTORY  OP  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.     659 

to  his  new  friends  and  in  a  private  interview  detailed 
to  the  Colonel  the  situation  of  Detroit,  and  offered  to 
go  out  and  bring  him  a  scalp  or  a  prisoner.  Clark 
declined  the  offered  scalp,  but  said  that  he  would  be 
glad  to  secure  a  prisoner,  from  whom  he  could  obtain 
some  information  of  the  movements  of  the  British. 
The  chief,  dressed  in  a  fine  laced  suit,  decorated  with 
a  silver  medal,  and  bearing  a  captain's  commission, 
set  out  on  this  expedition."  (Coleman,  in  Harper's 
Mag.,  vol.  XXIII,  p.  52). 

And  a  writer  in  The  North  American  Review 
[vol.  XLIII  (July,  1836),  p.  17],  erroneously  speaks  of 
Clark's  negotiation  with  the  Indians,  as  though  it  was 
carried  on  by  the  Colonel  in  person,  both  on  the  Wa- 
bash  and  at  Cahokia.  He  says : 

"Though  Clark  had  effected  so  much,  having 
taken  two  important  posts  from  the  British  [Kaskas- 
kia  and  Cahokia  being  considered  as  one  and  Vin- 
cennes  as  another]  and  having  won  the  favor  of  the 
French,  there  was  yet  another  influence  to  be  propiti 
ated,  more  important  and  more  hostile  than  either. 
The  business,  now  more  difficult  than  anything  he  had 
yet  accomplished,  was  to  awe  or  persuade  the  Indians 
of  the  Wabash  into  an  alliance  with  the  Americns. 
And  in  this  affair  he  displayed  as  much  sagacity  and 
perseverence  as  in  his  previous  exploits.  The  French 
have  [had]  invariably  succeeded  in  winning  the  friend 
ship  of  the  Indians.  The  English  almost  as  invariably 
have  [had]  failed.  By  an  attentive  study  of  the  Indian 
character,  Clark  had  learned  to  combine  the  dignity 
and  firmness  which  awe,  with  that  ceremonious  beha 
vior  which  pleases  the  pride  and  vanitv  of  the  savage. 
In  the  treaties  held  by  him  at  Cahokia  and  on  the 


(5(50       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Wabash,  was  displayed  the  correctness  of  this  view  of 
the  Indian." 

Indian  speeches  afterward  reached  the  ears  of 
Hamilton  said  (but  without  a  semblance  of  truth)  to 
have  been  made  when  the  "rebels"  first  arrived  at 
Vincennes :  "Having  called  the  Indians  together,  they 
[the  'rebels']  laid  a  war  belt  colored  red  and  a  belt  col 
ored  green  before  them,  telling  them  that  if  they  de 
lighted  in  mischief  and  had  no  compassion  on  their 
wives  and  children  they  might  take  up  the  red  one ; 
if,  on  the  contrary,  they  were  wise  and  preferred  peace, 
the  green  one. 

"The  Old  Tobacco,  a  chief  of  the  Piankeshaws, 
spoke  as  follows :  'My  brothers  !  You  speak  in  a  man 
ner  not  to  be  understood.  I  never  yet  saw  nor  have 
I  heard  from  my  ancestors,  that  it  was  customary  to 
place  good  and  bad  things  in  the  same  dish.  You  talk 
to  us  as  if  you  meant  us  well,  yet  you  speak  of  war 
and  peace  in  the  same  minute.  Thus,  I  treat  the 
speeches  of  such  men'  —  on  which,  with  a  violent  kick, 
he  spurned  their  belts  from  him. 

"The  son  of  Lagesse,  a  young  chief  of  the  Potta- 
wattamies,  of  St.  Joseph,  spoke  next  to  them : 

"  'My  brothers !  Tis  because  I  have  listened  to  the 
voice  of  our  old  men  and  because  I  have  regard  for 
our  women  and  children,  that  I  have  not  before  now 
struck  my  tomahawk  into  some  of  your  heads.  Attend 
to  what  I  say.  I  will  only  go  to  see  in  what  condition 
our  wives  and  children  are  [meaning,  he  would  first 
place  them  in  security]  and  then  you  may  depend  on 
seeing  me  again.' 

"The  rebel  speaker  [Captain  Helm]  then  said: 
'You  are  young  men  and  your  youth  excuses  your 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       661 


ignorance  —  else  you  would  not  talk  as  you  do.  Our 
design  is  to  march  through  your  country,  and  if  we 
find  any  fires  in  our  way  we  shall  just  tread  them  out 
as  we  walk  along;  and  if  we  meet  with  any  obstacle 
or  barrier  we  shall  remove  it  with  all  ease,  but  the 
bystanders  must  take  care  lest  the  splinters  should  scar 
their  faces. 

"  'We  shall  then  proceed  to  Detroit  where  your 
father  is  whom  we  consider  as  a  hog  put  to  fatten  in 
a  pen ;  we  shall  enclose  him  in  his  pen  till  he  be  fat  and 
then  we  will  throw  him  into  the  river.  We  shall  draw 
a  reinforcement  from  the  Falls  on  the  Ohio,  and  from 
there  and  the  Illinois  send  six  hundred  men  to  Detroit." 

"To  this  the  Indians  replied :  "You  who  are  so 
brave,  what  need  have  you  to  be  reinforced  to  go  to 
Detroit  —  you  that  can  put  out  our  fires  and  so  easily 
remove  our  barriers?  —  This  we  say  to  you:  Take 
care  that,  in  attempting  to  extinguish  our  fires  you  do 
not  burn  yourselves ;  and  that,  in  breaking  down  our 
barriers,  you  do  not  run  splinters  into  your  hands. 
You  may  also  expect  that  we  shall  not  suffer  a  single 
Frenchman  to  accompany  you  to  Detroit."* 

Mention  being  frequently  made  of  two  Pianke- 
shaw  chiefs  —  "Old  Tobacco"  and  his  son,  by  Western 
writers,  by  whom  the  two  are  considered  as  having  the 
same  name,  care  should  be  taken  to  distinguish  be 
tween  them. 

"Captain  Leonard  Helm  was  put  in  command  of 
Vincennes,  and  appointed  Superintendent  of  Indian 
affairs  on  the  Wabash  by  Clark.  The  principal  busi- 

*  Proceedings  of  the  Rebels  at  Vincennes,  as  Related  to 
Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton  by  Neegik,  an  Ottawa  War 
Chief,  Oct.  14,  1778.  —  Haldimand  MSS. 


862       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

ness  entrusted  to  him  was  securing  the  friendship  of 
the  Indians  of  the  Wabash,  particularly  of  the  Pianke- 
shaws,  as  they  were  located  at  and  near  Vincennes. 
The  head  chief  was  Tabac,  who,  inasmuch  as  his  tribe 
lived  lower  down  the  Wabash  than  any  other,  and 
therefore  commanded  its  navigation,  was  called  the 
Grand  Door  of  the  Wabash."  -  -  Dunn's  Indiana,  p. 

137- 

Dunn,  in  a  foot-note  to  the  word  "Tabac"  ex 
plains  that  it  means  Tobacco ;  and  he  then  adds :  "His 
father  had  the  same  name,  hence  this  chief  was  some 
times  called  Young  Tobac,  or  Tobacco's  Son." 

The  father  was  everywhere  known  upon  the  Wa 
bash  as  "Tobac,"  "Tobacco"  or  "Old  Tobacco,"  by  the 
whites;  but  no  cotemporaneous  account  speaks  of  his 
son  as  being  known  by  either  of  these  names.  In  the 
various  Indian  languages  of  the  New  World,  the  son 
never  took  the  name  of  the  father,  unless,  indeed,  so 
spoken  of  first  by  white  people.  It  is  true  that  But 
ler  (History  of  Kentucky,  p.  65),  says  that  "near  the 
post  of  St.  Vincents  [Vincennes],  there  was  a  chief  by 
the  name  of  'Tobacco's  Son,'  whose  name  appears  in 
the  deed  to  the  Wabash  Company,  in  1775,  as  'Tabac' ;" 
but,  in  this  the  historian  is  in  error.  The  deed  men 
tions  but  the  name  of  the  father  ('Tabac  or  Tobacco") 
and  ("Tabac,  Junior")  the  son,  where  the  writer  of 
the  deed  uses  "Tabac,  Junior"  instead  of  "the  Son  of 
Tobacco,"  or  "the  Tobacco's  Son."  In  a  deed  exe 
cuted  in  1779,  the  latter  signs  his  name,  "Francis,  Son 
of  Tobacco."  "Big  Door"  (or  "Big  Gate"),  as  applied 
by  the  Piankeshaws  to  their  chief,  was  a  title  of  honor 
merely  —  he  guarded  the  door  or  gate  of  the  Wabash ; 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       663 

i.  e.,  the  mouth  of  the  river,  and  thereby  controlled 
largely  its  navigation. 

Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton,  at  Detroit,  did 
not  rely  solely  upon  De  Celoron  for  news  concerning 
"rebel"  movements  in  the  Wabash  valley:  "Mr. 
Charles  Beaubien,  employed  for  his  Majesty  at  the  Mi- 
amis,  writes  that  the  savages  at  yincennes  will  not  take 
the  rebels  by  the  hand;  that  the  [White  river]  Dela- 
wares,  [the]  Illinois,  Ottawas,  and  Shawanese  were 
determined  to  strike  the  rebels,  but  the  Piankeshaws 
interfered.  The  latter  want  to  know  the  determina 
tion  of  the  Kickapoos  and  Weas.  He  adds  that  the 
French  are  said  to  be  in  the  interest  of  the  rebels."* 

Subsequently,  in  person,  Beaubien  recounted  the 
substance  of  what  had  been  brought  to  him  by  a  Miami 
Indian  from  Eel  river  —  speeches  of  Chickasaws,  Pi 
ankeshaws  and  "Virginians"  to  the  Miami  Indians  at 
their  town  [at  the  head  of  the  Maumee].  The  sava 
ges  first  mentioned  advised  all  the  Wabash  Indians 
including  the  Miamis  to  demand  of  the  "Virginians" 
that  they  withdraw  from  the  country.  The  Pianke 
shaws  declared  to  the  same  tribes  that  they  would  have 
already  struck  the  "Virginians,"  but  awaited  their 
reply ;  that  it  was  their  feeling  these  whites  should  be 
sent  home ;  and  that  the  Delawares  of  White  river, 
also,  the  Illinois  savages  and  the  Ottawas,  thought  the 
same.  The  "speech"  of  the  "Virginians"  asked  all  the 
Wabash  tribes  and  the  Miamis  to  visit  them ;  that  they 
intended  to  attack  Detroit  soon,  and  would  make  an 

*  Hamilton   to  Haldimand,    Sept.    16,    1778.  —  Haldimand 

MSS. 


664       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

end  of  Hamilton ;  and  that  as  for  the  Indians  there, 
they  regarded  them  as  nothing.* 


NOTE  LXVII. 

BANCROFT'S  ERRONEOUS  VIEWS  CONCERNING  THE 
SPEECH  SENT  RY  CAPTAIN  HELM  TO  THE  WEA  SAV 
AGES. 

"His  [Gibault's]  own  offer  of  mediation  being 
accepted  [by  Clark],  he,  with  a  small  party,  repaired 
to  the  post  [of  Vincennes]  ;  and  its  people,  having 
listened  to  his  explanation  of  the  state  of  affairs,  went 
into  the  church  and  took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
United  States.  The  transition  from  the  condition  of 
subjects  of  a  king  to  that  of  the  integral  members  of 
a  free  state  made  them  new  men.  Planning  the  ac 
quisition  of  the  whole  northwest,  they  sent  to  the  In 
dians  on  the  Wabash  five  belts :  a  white  one  for  the 
French ;  a  red  one  for  the  Spaniards ;  a  blue  one  for 
America ;  and  for  the  Indian  tribes  a  green  one  as  an 
offer  of  peace,  and  one  of  the  color  of  blood  if  they 
preferred  war,  with  the  message:  The  King  of 
France  has  come  to  life.  We  desire  you  to  leave  a 
very  wide  path  for  us  to  pass  through  your  country  to 

*  Speeches  brought  by  Mr.  Charles  Beaubien  to  Detroit, 
the  27th  [2Gth]  Sept.,  1778.  —  Haldimand  MSS.  The  infor 
mation  obtained  from  Beaubien  by  Hamilton  must  have  satis 
fied  the  Lieutenant  Governor  that  the  Wabash  savages  (ex 
cept  the  Piankeshaws)  were  not  reconciled  to  the  "Vir 
ginians  ;"  and  Capt.  Helm,  in  deciding  not  to  attempt  a 
march  to  the  Miami  village  at  the  head  of  the  Maumee, 
doubtless  came  to  the  same  conclusion. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST.  ETC.       660 

Detroit,  for  we  are  many  in  numbers  and  we  might 
chance  to  hurt  some  of  your  young  people  with  our 
swords."  —  Bancroft's  History  of  the  United  States 
(ed.  of  1885),  vol.  V,  pp.  311,  312.) 

It  can  hardly  be  said,  however,  with  strict  adher 
ence  to  fact,  that  the  inhabitants  of  Vincennes  were 
changed  to  any  great  extent  —  certainly  not  "made 
new  men"  —  by  the  turn  affairs  had  taken.  They  nat 
urally  felt  elated  at  the  news  brought  by  Gibault  and 
would  henceforth  favor  American  interests ;  that  was 
all :  they  by  no  means  planned  the  acquisition  of  any 
territory,  nor  did  they  send  any  belts  to  the  Indians  to 
induce  them  to  terms  of  peace  with  the  Virginians. 
The  inference  in  the  extract  just  given  is,  that  this 
speech  was  sent  at  the  time  of  Gibault's  visit,  and  by 
the  people  of  Vincennes  ;  which  is  contrary  to  the  state 
ment  received  by  Hamilton.  De  Conague  and  his  five 
white  companions  bringing  to  De  Celoron  "belts  and 
speeches  from  the  rebels,"  plainly  implies  that  they 
came  from  the  Americans  —  that  is,  from  Captain 
Helm  —  otherwise  the  Wea  commandant  would  not 
have  taken  his  ignoble  flight. 


NOTE    LXVIII. 

THE    WABASH    LAND    COMPANY'S    PURCHASE    FROM    THE 
PIANKESHAWS. 

The  Wabash  Land  Company  was  composed  of 
"Louis  Viviat,  the  Right  Honorable  John,  Earl  of 
Dunmore,  Governor  of  the  Colony  and  Dominion  of 


666       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Virginia,  the  Honorable  John  Murray,  son  of  the  said 
Earl,  Moses  Franks  and  Jacob  Franks,  of  the  city 
of  London,  in  the  Kingdom  of  Great  Britain,  Es 
quires;  Thomas  Johnson,  Jr.,  Esquire,  attorney-at- 
law,  and  John  Davidson,  merchant,  both  of  the  city 
of  Annapolis,  in  the  Province  of  Maryland ;  William 
Russell,  Esquire,  Matthew  Ridley,  Robert  Christee, 
Sen.,  and  Robert  Christie,  Jr.,  of  Baltimore  town,  in 
the  said  Province  of  Maryland,  merchants ;  Peter 
Campbell,  of  Piscataway,  in  Maryland,  merchant; 
William  Geddes,  of  Newtown  Chester,  in  Maryland, 
Esq.,  collector  of  His  Majesty's  customs;  David 
Franks,  merchant,  and  Moses  Franks,  attorney-at- 
law,  both  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  in  the  Province 
of  Pennsylvania;  William  Murray,  and  David  Mur7 
ray,  of  the  Illinois  country,  merchants ;  Nicholas 
St.  Martin  and  Joseph  Page,  of  the  same  place,  gen 
tlemen;  Francis  Perthuis,  late  of  Quebec  city,  in 
Canada,  but  now  [Oct.  18,  1775]  of  Post  St.  Vincent 
[Vincennes]." 

The  negotiations  resulting  in  the  purchase  of  lands 
from  the  Piankeshaws  were  carried  on  for  the  Com 
pany  by  Louis  Viviat,  of  the  Illinois  country  —  who 
acted  as  agent  for  the  Association  —  at  Vincennes  and 
Vermillion.  The  deed  conveyed  the  lands  to  the 
grantees,  "or  to  his  most  sacred  Majesty  George 
the  Third,  by  the  grace  of  God,  of  Great  Britain, 
France  and  Ireland,  King,  Defender  of  the  Faith, 
and  so  forth,  his  heirs  and  successors,"  for  their  use; 
and  the  number  of  acres  bought  were  about  thirty- 
seven  million  four  hundred  and  ninety-seven  thous 
and  six  hundred. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       667 
NOTE    LXIX. 

FICTION    ABOUT    CAPTAIN     LEONARD    HELM. 

"There  is  an  anecdote  respecting  Captain  Leon 
ard  Helm,  evincing  an  intrepidity  which  would  ill 
be  omitted:  it  has  been  communicated  to  the  author 
through  the  friendly  interest  of  Judge  Underwood, 
and  his  venerable  relative,  Edmund  Rogers,  Esq.,  of 
Barren  county  [Ky.],  a  brother  of  Captain  John 
Rogers,  and  personally  intimate  with  Clark  and  his 
officers  for  years.  It  is  as  follows:  When  Governor 
Hamilton  entered  Vincennes,  there  were  but  two 
Americans  there,  Captain  Helm,  the  commandant, 
and  one  Henry.  The  latter  had  a  cannon  well  charged 
and  placed  in  the  open  fort  gate,  while  Helm  stood 
by  it  with  a  lighted  match  in  his  hand.  When  Ham 
ilton  and  his  troops  got  within  good  hailing  dis 
tance,  the  American  officer  in  a  loud  voice  cried  out, 
'Halt!'  This  stopped  the  movements  of  Hamilton, 
who,  in  reply,  demanded  a  surrender  of  the  garri 
son.  Helm  exclaimed  with  an  oath,  'No  man  shall 
enter  until  I  know  the  terms.'  Hamilton  answered, 
'You  shall  have  the  honors  of  war,'  and  then  the  fort 
was  surrendered  with  its  garrison  of  one  officer  and 
one  private.  Such  is  a  specimen  of  the  character  of 
Colonel  Clark's  followers.  They  were  the  very  choice 
of  Virginia  and  the  western  frontier.  Dangers  they 
scarcely  counted,  and  difficulties  presented  themselves 
but  to  be  overcome."  (Butler's  Kentucky,  p.  79ri). 
There  were,  it  is  true,  at  the  time  of  surrender,  but 
two  of  Clark's  men  inside  the  fortification  —  Captain 


608       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Helm  and  a  private ;   but  there  were  in  addition  three 
Vincennes  militia. 

As  the  particulars  concerning  the  surrender  of 
Fort  Sackville  by  Captain  Helm  were  written  down 
by  Hamilton  almost  at  the  very  time  of  the  happen 
ing  of  the  events  described ;  and  as  they  are  given 
in  a  letter  which  must  be  considered  as  an  official  re 
port  ;  the  utmost  credit  is  to  be  given  the  whole  re 
lation. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  the  marching  of  Ham 
ilton  up  to  the  fort  at  the  head  of  five  hundred 
whites  and  Indians  (with  a  six-pounder  ready  for 
instant  work),  to  demand  its  surrender,  the  Lieutenant 
Governor  at  the  same  time  being  fully  advised  that 
the  garrison  had  forsaken  Captain  Helm  until  he  was 
left  "almost  alone,"  savors  strongly  of  the  ludicrous ; 
and  it  certainly  required  not  a  little  amount  of  bravery 
for  the  British  commander  afterward  to  detail  the 
whole  affair  to  his  Commander-in-chief. 

Helm,  in  surrendering  himself  and  his  small  gar 
rison,  acted,  under  all  the  circumstances,  with  com 
mendable  courage,  confronted  as  he  was  (and  as  he 
could  plainly  see)  by  an  overwhelming  force  of  white 
men  and  savages.  But  the  attitude  assumed  by  the 
Captain  at  the  time  has,  by  tradition,  been  set  off 
with  grandiloquent  language  as  one  of  mock-heroic 
defiance.  It  comes  down  to  us  in  different  histories, 
varying  in  the  intensity  of  its  absurdity. 

As  all  the  pleasantry  (if  such  a  term  can  here  be 
properly  employed)  bestowed  hitherto  upon  the  event 
by  American  writers,  depends  for  its  point  upon  the 
smallness  of  the  garrison  when  it  was  surrendered 
by  Captain  Helm,  it  is  proper  that  what  informa- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       669 

tion  can  be  added  as  to  the  actual  number,  be  now 
brought  forward. 

An  eye-witness  —  a  Lieutenant  of  one  of  Ham 
ilton's  companies  —  says  that  Captain  Helm  and  ua 
few  soldiers  were  made  prisoners;"*  while  the  frank 
admission  of  the  Lieutenant  Governor  that  the  Cap 
tain  when  he  surrendered  "was  almost  alone"  makes 
it  altogether  certain  that  Fort  Sackville,  when  given 
up  to  the  British,  had  but  a  handful  (so  to  speak) 
of  defenders.  But  it  is  important  to  know  the  exact 
number — if  it  can  be  determined. 

The  popular  impression  (and  the  one  that  has 
gained  from  tradition  the  most  extensive  circulation) 
is,  that  but  one  man  —  Moses  Henry  —  was  left  in 
the  fort  besides  the  commander  when  Hamilton 
marched  up  to  the  gate  and  demanded  a  surrender. 
Upon  the  strength  of  this,  accounts  have  been  pub 
lished  of  the  most  melo-dramatic  character ;  as,  for 
instance : 

*  The  Lieutenant  referred  to  was  Jacob  Schieffelin,  of 
Captain  Lamothe's  company.  (Loose  Notes  —  Magazine  of 
American  History,  vol.  I,  p.  186.) 

"And  what  few  men  that  composed  the  garrison,  not 
being  able  to  make  the  least  defence.,  etc.  [the  italicising  is 
mine]."  — Clark  to  Gov.  Henry,  Feb.  3,  1779  (Calendar  of 
Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  I,  p.  315).  See,  also,  Clark's 
language  in  his  letter  of  April  29,  following  (Jefferson's 
Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222  n),  as  to  the  same  matter. 

"Captain  Helm  (Monnette  —  History  of  the  Valley  of  the 
Mississippi,  vol.  I,  p.  424)  was  left  with  only  two  soldiers 
and  a  few  volunteer  militia  to  protect  the  fort  at  Vincennes." 
The  two  soldiers  were  those  who  came  with  him  from  Kas- 
kaskia;  and  there  were  only  two,  although  that  writer  (vol. 
I,  p.  422)  speaks  of  Captain  Helm  being  dispatched  from 
Kaskaskia  to  Vincennes  "with  a  small  garrison." 


670       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"When  Governor  Hamilton  entered  Vincennes 
there  were  but  two  Americans  there  —  Captain  Helm, 
the  commandant,  and  one  Henry.  The  latter  had 
a  cannon  well  charged  and  placed  in  the  open  fort 
gate,  while  Helm  stood  by  it  with  a  lighted  match 
in  his  hand.  When  Hamilton  and  his  troops  got 
within  good  hailing  distance,  the  American  officer, 
in  a  loud  voice,  cried  out :  'Halt !'  This  stopped 
the  movements  of  Hamilton,  who,  in  reply,  demanded 
a  surrender  of  the  garrison.  Helm  exclaimed  with 
an  oath,  'No  man  shall  enter  until  I  know  the  terms.' 
Hamilton  answered :  'You  shall  have  the  honors  of 
war;'  and  then  the  fort  was  surrendered,  with  its 
garrison  of  one  officer  and  one  man."  (Cutler's  Ken 
tucky,  p.  80.)  The  relation  regarding  the  loaded 
cannon  is  undoubtedly  fictitious. 

"The  brave  captain  [Helm]  refused  to  surrender 
the  fort  when  demanded,  until  terms  —  the  honors 
of  war  —  were  granted  him.  Only  himself  and  one 
soldier  (Moses  Henry)  were  surrendered."  (John 
Moses:  Illinois'.  Historical  and  Statistical,  vol.  I,  p. 
155.)  But,  were  there  not  other  persons  besides  Henry 
with  Captain  Helm?  According  to  reliable  tradition, 
there  were,  as  already  stated,  five  men  in  Fort  Sack- 
ville,  "besides  Captain  Helm,  when  it  was  surrendered 
—  two  Americans,  and  three  citizens  of  Vincennes,  of 
the  militia  of  the  town.  I  have  been  able- to  obtain, 
from  a  variety  of  sources,  sufficient  assurance  of  this, 
although  no  statement  I  have  examined  was  made 
at  the  time  of  the  surrender. 

"When  the  fort  was  thrown  open,  Captain  Helm 
and  .five  men,  with  due  formality,  marched  out  and 
laid  down  their  arms  before  the  astonished  com- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       671 

mander."  (Monnette's  History  of  the  Valley  of  the 
Mississippi,  vol.  I,  p.  425). 

But,  as  already  seen,  the  Captain  and  his  small 
force  did  not  march  out  of  the  fort  at  all.  The 
same  writer  (vol.  I,  pp.  425,  426)  says:  "Captain 
Helm  and  one  other  American  were  retained  as  pris 
oners  of  war,  the  other  three  being  volunteer  citi 
zens  of  Vincennes."  This  gives  the  Captain  but 
four  men  at  the  time  Hamilton  entered  the  fort.  But 
there  were,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  two  Americans  be 
side  Helm  inside  the  fort  at  the  time,  one  being  a 
soldier  belonging  to  Clark's  force  (who  had  been 
detailed  to  march  to  Vincennes  under  Helm)  and 
the  other  Moses  Henry,  already  mentioned,  a  black 
smith,  residing  in  the  village,  who  was  not  in  the 
military  service.  Captain  Helm,  it  will  be  remem 
bered,  brought  with  him  two  soldiers  from  Kas- 
kaskia ;  but  one  —  Captain  Williams'  brother  —  who 
had  been  dispatched  at  the  last  moment  with  a  letter 
to  Colonel  Clark,  was,  as  before  mentioned,  captured, 
and,  at  the  time  of  the  surrender,  was  a  prisoner  in 
the  hands  of  the  enemy. 

But  "a  garrison  of  five"  has  not  restrained  the 
pens  of  writers  of  Western  annals  from  indulging  in 
romantic  relations : 

"The  news  of  Clark's  success  having  at  length 
reached  Detroit  .  .  .  Hamilton,  the  British 
Governor,  at  once  determined  to  recapture  the  post 
again,  and  accordingly  with  eighty  regulars,  a  large 
number  of  Canadian  militia,  and  six  hundred  Indians, 
he  ascended  the  Maumee  .  .  .  crossed  over 
to  the  Wabash,  and  made  a  rapid  movement  on 
Vincennes,  thinking  to  take  the  fort  by  storm,  and 


672       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

destroy  all  within  the  garrison.  Thus  they  moved 
forward.  Helm  was  not  to  be  dismayed.  Full  of 
confidence,  and  with  an  air  that  served  to  signify 
that  the  fort  was  full  of  soldiers,  he  leaped  upon 
the  bastion,  near  a  cannon,  and,  swinging  his  lighted 
match,  shouted  with  great  force,  as  the  advancing 
column  approached,  'Halt!  or  I  will  blow  you  to 
atoms !'  At  which,  the  Indians  precipitately  took  to 
the  woods  and  the  Canadians  fell  back  out  of  range 
of  the  cannon.  Fearing  that  the  fort  was  well 
manned,  and  that  a  desperate  encounter  would  ensue, 
Hamilton  thought  best  to  offer  a  parley;  Captain 
Helm  declaring  that  he  would  fight  as  long  as  a 
man  was  left  to  bear  arms,  unless  permitted  to  march 
out  with  the  full  honors  of  war,  which  were  at  length 
agreed  upon,  and  the  garrison  thrown  open.  Helm, 
and  five  men,  all  told,  marching  out,  to  the  utmost 
astonishment  of  the  British  commander.  But  Helm 
was  afterwards  detained  in  the  fort  as  a  prisoner." 
(Brice's  Fort  Wayne,  pp.  101,  102.) 

A  recent  writer  discourses  thus  on  the  surrender 
of  the  fort  to  Hamilton :  "Poor  Helm  was  promptly 
deserted  by  all  the  creole  militia.  The  latter  had 
been  loud  in  their  boasts  until  the  enemy  came  in 
view,  but  even  as  they  caught  sight  of  the  red-coats 
they  began  to  slip  away  and  run  up  to  the  British 
to  surrender  their  arms.  He  was  finally  left  with 
only  one  or  two  men,  Americans.  Nevertheless  he 
refused  the  first  summons  to  surrender ;  but  Ham 
ilton,  who  knew  that  Helm's  troops  had  deserted  him, 
marched  up  to  the  fort  at  the  head  of  his  soldiers, 
and  the  American  was  obliged  to  surrender,  with  no 
terms  granted  save  that  he  and  his  associates  should 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       673 

be  treated   with  humanity."  —  Roosevelt :    The    Win 
ning  of  the  W-est,  vol.  II,  p.  63. 

It   is   to   be   noted   in   considering   the   foregoing, 

1 i )  that   not   all  the   Creole   militia   deserted   Helm ; 

(2)  that  the  deserters  did  not  wait  until  the  red-coats 
came  in  view;     (3)    Helm  was  left  with  more  than 
one  or  two  men  and  who  were  not  all  Americans ; 
and    (4)    the   terms   granted   were   not   expressly   to 
Helm  and  his  associates,  but  to  the  Captain  only. 


NOTE  LXX. 

SOME  ERRORS  BY  HISTORIANS  AS  TO  HAMILTON'S  FORCE 
WHEN    HE   LEFT   DETROIT. 

.  (i)  "When  these  proceedings  [the  conquest  and 
submission  of  the  Illinois  towns  and  Vincennes]  came 
to  the  ears  of  Colonel  Hamilton  at  Detroit,  he  started 
out  with  a  little  army  of  about  500  men,  regulars, 
Tories,  and  Indians,  and  after  a  march  of  seventy 
days  through  the  primeval  forest  reached  Vincennes 
and  took  possession  of  it."  (Fiske:  "The  American 
Revolution,"  vol.  II,  p.  106.)  The  principal  errors 
in  the  foregoing  are  that  Hamilton  started  out  with 
five  hundred  men  and  that  a  portion  of  them  was 
tories. 

(2)  "Gov.  Hamilton  at  Detroit,"  says  L.  C. 
Draper  (Appleton's  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biog 
raphy,  art.  'George  Rogers  Clark'),  "marched  a  large 
force,  mostly  Indians,  and  retook  Vincennes  early  in 
December  [1778!."  There  are  two  errors,  by  impli 
cation,  in  this :  ( i )  that  the  Lieutenant  Governor 

43 


674       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

marched  from  Detroit  with  a  large  force,  mostly 
Indians,  and  (2)  that  he  retook  Vincennes  before  the 
middle  of  the  month. 


NOTE  LXXL 

CONCERNING   THE   OATH    ADMINISTERED    BY   GOV.    HAM 
ILTON   TO  THE  CITIZENS  OF  VINCENNES. 

The  oath  began :  "At  Vincennes,  this  iQth  De 
cember,  1778,"  and  ended,  —  "In  faith  of  which,  we 
sign  with  our  hands,  or  certify  by  our  ordinary  marks, 
the  day  and  month  above  named,  in  the  year  1778." 
Hamilton,  in  his  letter  of  Dec.  18-30,  gives  the  day  of 
his  convening  the  inhabitants  in  the  church  as  the 
i8th,  but  the  date  of  the  oath  corrects  this;  it  was  the 
iQth. 

Notwithstanding  the  specious  words  of  Hamilton 
to  the  citizens  before  the  oath  was  administered,  it  is 
obvious  that  it  amounted  to  a  compulsion  on  part  of 
the  Lieutenant-Governor ;  and  it  was  a  bold  assump 
tion  —  the  claim  subsequently  put  forth  —  that  the  in 
habitants  of  Vincennes  took  this  oath  "of  their  own 
free  will :"  "The  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Vin 
cennes,  who  had  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the 
rebels,  did,  of  their  own  free  will,  take  a  solemn  oath 
of  allegiance  to  his  Majesty,  acknowledging  that  they 
had  offended  God  and  man  by  having  deviated  from 
their  first  engagement ;  that  they  returned  to  their 
duty,  and  would  show  themselves  good  subjects  in  fu 
ture,  praying  the  clemency  of  his  Majesty  and  the  pro 
tection  of  Governor  Hamilton."  (Schieffelin:  Loose 
Notes,  Magazine  of  American  History,  vol.  I,  p.  i8(5.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       675 


NOTE  LXXII. 

WHY    HAMILTON    DETERMINED   TO    WINTER    IN 
VINCENNES. 

Hamilton's  reasons  for  wintering  in  Vincennes  are 
set  forth  (i)  in  his  letter  to  Haldimand  of  Dec.  18-30, 
1778;  and  (2)  in  that  of  July  6,  1781.  In  the  last 
letter  cited,  he  says :  "The  state  of  our  provisions,  the 
length  of  the  journey  (240  miles)  and  the  want  of  car 
riages,  added  to  the  nature  of  the  country  subject  to 
inundations,  all  combined  to  direct  our  determination 
to  fortify  ourselves  here  [at  Vincennes],  and  wait  for 
reinforcements  in  the  spring."  But  his  estimate  of  the 
distance  from  Vincennes  to  the  Illinois  (that  is,  to 
Kaskaskia)  was  too  great  by  about  forty  mile's.  He 
had,  doubtless,  mistaken  the  leagues  of  the  French  for 
English  leagues,  as  the  former  always  gave  the  dis 
tance  as  "eighty  leagues,"  which  would  make  about 
200  miles.  The  Lieutenant-Governor  gives  no  reason 
why  it  would  be  impracticable  to  attempt  the  journey 
by  water,  doubtless  supposing  General  Haldimand 
would  understand  fully  that  he  had  no  means  of  trans 
porting  five  hundred  men  in  that  way ;  but  the  Com 
mander-in-chief  did  not  take  this  for  granted.  In 
commenting,  afterward,  upon  Hamilton's  letter  of  the 
i8-3Oth  of  December,  he  says :  "On  the  6th  page,  he 
gives  reasons  for  not  sending  any  body  this  winter  to 
the  Illinois  by  water  to  attack  the  rebels ;  it  should  be, 
he  has  no  means  to  gaby  land"  (Remarks  on  Lieut. 
Gov.  Hamilton's  Letter.  — Haldimand  MSS.)  It 
will  thus  be  seen  that  the  Commander-in-chief  misun 
derstood  Hamilton.  The  General  also  made  these 
comments : 


676       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"He  [Hamilton]  seems  to  think  next  spring  to  at 
tack  the  two  posts  at  the  Illinois.  It  is  hoped,  in  that 
case,  that  he  will  at  least  take  one  of  the  three  pound 
ers  which  he  got  at  Vincennes  along,  so  as  to  make  a 
cross-fire,  or  else  the  rebels  might  easily  cover  them 
selves  against  one  cannon ;  that  is,  if  he  expects  noth 
ing  but  stockades  to  attack ;  otherwise,  a  six-pounder 
field  piece  would  not  be  sufficient.  .  .  .  Two  royal 
mortars  would  be  sufficient  if  he  had  more  than  two 
artillery  men."  -  -  Haldimand  :  "Remarks  on  Lieut. 
Gov.  Hamilton's  Letter"  [of  Dec.  18-30,  1778  —  Hal 
dimand  MSS.]  The  Commander-in-chief,  in  men 
tioning  a  six-pounder,  referred  to  the  six-pounder  field 
piece  brought  by  Hamilton  from  Detroit. 


NOTE  LXXIII. 

BEGINNING  AND  ENDING  OF  DE  PEYSTER^S  INSTRUCTIONS 
TO   LANGLADE  AND   GAUTIER. 

The  following  was  the  opening  paragraph  : 
"GENTLEMEN  :  —  By  the  orders  given  me  by  his  Ex 
cellency,  General  Haldimand,  Commander-in-chief  of  the 
armies  of  his  Majesty,  the  King  of  Great  Britain  in  Canada, 
etc.,  etc.,  etc.,  to  do  all  in  my  power  to  assist  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  Hamilton  in  all  his  enterprises  against  the  rebels;  and 
since  I  have  been  apprised  by  a  letter  of  the  Lieutenant 
Governor  that  he  has  gone  to  dislodge  the  rebels  of  the 
Illinois,  asking  me  to  give  him  assistance,  you  are  ordered, 
by  these  presents  to  go  and  try  to  raise  the  nations." 

"Given  at  Fort  Michilimaquenac,  this  26th  day  of  Octo 
ber,  1778.  "Ax.   S.  DE  PYSTER, 

"Major  of  the  King's  regiment  and  Commander  of 

the  said  post  and  Dependencies. 
"To  Capt.  Langlade  and  Lieut.  Gautter," 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       677 


NOTE  LXXIV. 

NUMBER    OF     HAMILTON^     SOLDIERS     ( WHITE)      WHEN 

HE      OCCUPIED      VINCENNES.       ALSO      AS      TO      THE 

PRICE  OF  PROVISIONS  THERE  AT  THAT  DATE. 

Of  the  Royal  Artillery,  there  were,  with  Hamilton, 
one  lieutenant  and  two  rank  and  file ;  of  the  Eighth 
regiment,  two  sergeants  and  thirty  privates ;  of  Captain 
Lamothe's  volunteers,  one  captain,  one  lieutenant, 
three  sergeants  and  forty  rank  and  file ;  of  the  Detroit 
volunteer  militia,  one  major,  two  captains,  two  lieu 
tenants,  one  surgeon,  one  commissioner  of  provisions, 
one  boat-master,  four  carpenters,  four  sergeants  and 
sixty-three  privates ;  of  the  Indian  Department  be 
sides  Mr.  Hay  (deputy  agent),  there  were  three  cap 
tains,  four  lieutenants,  one  commissioner  of  provisions, 
two  interpreters,  one  store-keeper  and  six  privates : 
total  white  force,  one  hundred  and  seventy-six. 

"Prices  of  provisions,  etc.,  at  Vincennes,  Dec. 
1778: 

Budflour  per  hundred £6.13.4; 

Indian  corn  per  bushel 18 . 8 ; 

Fresh  beef  per  Ib 8 ; 

Buffalo       do        8; 

Pork           do         2.8; 

Tafia              per  gallon 3.4.0; 

Wine  made  here  do .  . . . : 18 . 8 ; 

Strard  per  ell 1.18.8; 

Blankets    1.18.8; 

Ruffled   (Indian)    shirts 2.8.0; 

Plain                  do             1.8.0; 

Vermilion  per  Ib 1.18.8; 

Powder          do 13.4; 

Ball    .  4.4." 


678       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE  LXXV. 
GEN.  HALDIMAND' s  CRITICISMS  ON  HAMILTON'S  COURSE 

IN  VINCENNES. 

"He  [Hamilton]  intends  to  send  back  the  militia 
from  Detroit,  which  went  with  him  for  the  campaign, 
as  if  he  would  stay  there  [at  Vincennes].  By  his  re 
turn,  they  amount  to  103  men,  so  that  he  expects  more 
for  a. reinforcement  besides  the  number  to  garrison 
Vincennes.  He  does  not  say  what  number  will  be 
wanted  to  keep  the  Indians  to  their  professions."  — 
Haldimand. 

But  Hamilton  did  not  intend  to  include  in  "the  vol 
unteer  militia"  Laniothe's  men,  as  Haldimand  sup 
posed.  The  latter  were  not  to  be  sent  back. 

"He  [Hamilton]  requests  the  commander-in- 
chief's  orders  and  a  person  to  command  [at  Vincennes] 
to  whom  he  will  resign;  as  if  he  will  neither  stay  at 
Vincennes  nor  proceed  to  the  Illinois  to  reduce  the 
rebels,  which  I  thought  was  his  design  in  leaving  De 
troit."  — Haldimand. 

Again:  "He  [Hamilton]  seems  to  want  positive 
orders  .  .  .  as  if  he  doubted  or  was  ignorant  of 
the  use  that  the  re-taking  of  Vincennes  could  be  —  as 
if  he  had  been  ordered  to  attack  it."  —  Id. 


NOTE  LXXVI. 


It  has  been  extensively   published  that  Hamilton 
had   ulterior    and    much    more    extensive   designs    in 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       679 

marching  against  the  Illinois  than  to  re-capture,  its 
towns  and  Vincennes.  Thus  one  writer : 

"Hamilton  was  methodical  in  the  use  of  Indians. 
He  gave  standing  rewards  for  scalps  but  offered  none 
for  prisoners.  His  continuous  parties,  of  Indians  and 
white  volunteers,  spared  neither  men  nor  women  nor 
children.  In  the  coming  year  he  promised  that  as 
early  as  possible  all  the  different  nations,  from  the 
Chickasaws  and  Cherokees  to  the  Hurons  and  Five 
Nations,  should  join  in  the  expeditions  against  Vir 
ginia  ;  while  the  lake  Indians  from  Mackinaw,  in  con 
junction  with  white  men,  agreed  to  destroy  the  few 
rebels  in  Illinois.  He  sent  out  detachments  to  watch 
Kaskaskia  and  the  falls  of  the  Ohio,  and  to  intercept 
any  boats  that  might  venture  up  that  river  with  sup 
plies  for  the  rebels.  He  never  doubted  his  ability  to 
reduce  all  Virginia  west  of  the  mountains."  [Ban 
croft:  History  of  the  United  States  (ed.  of  1885), 
Vol.  V.,  p.  312.] 

But  this  idea  of  the  numerous  nations  of  savages 
joining  Hamilton  against  Virginia  (meaning  that  part 
lying  to  the  south-eastward  and  eastward  of  Vin 
cennes  but  west  of  the  Alleghanies),  was  only  an  ex 
aggeration  of  the  extensive  plan  of  the  Southern  sav 
ages  mentioned  in  the  text. 

One  of  Kentucky's  early  historians  says  in  speak 
ing  of  Hamilton's  designs,  that  they  were  first  to  re 
take  Kaskaskia ;  and  next  to  cut  off  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Ohio,  up  to  Fort  Pitt ;  after  which  he  intended  to 
desolate  the  remaining  frontiers  of  Virginia."  (Mar 
shall's  Kentucky,  Vol.  I.,  p.  69.) 

But  this  is  the  outgrowth  of  what  Clark  himself 
wrote,  hastily  and  erroneously,  on  the  2Qth  of  April, 
1779.  (See  note  LXXXI,  of  this  Appendix.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE  LXXVII. 

AS    TO    THE    ATTACHMENT    OF    THE    TOBACCO'S    SON    TO 
CAPT.    HELM. 

The  following  account  of  the  attachment  of  the 
Tobacco's  son  to  Captain  Helm  [Clark's  Memoir  — 
Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp.  161,  162],  is  wholly 
without  foundation : 

"He  [the  Tobacco's  son]  had  conceived  such  an  in 
violable  attachment  for  Captain  Helm  that,  on  find 
ing  that  the  Captain  was  a  prisoner  and  not  being  as 
yet  able  to  release  him,  he  declared  himself  a  prisoner 
also.  He  joined  his  brother,  as  he  called  Captain 
Helm  and  continually  kept  with  him  condoling  their 
condition  as  prisoners  in  great  distress,  at  the  same 
time  wanting  nothing,  that  was  in  the  power  of  the 
garrison  to  furnish.  Lieutenant-Governor  Hamilton 
knowing  the  influence  of  the  Tobacco's  son,  was  ex 
tremely  jealous  of  his  behavior,  and  took  every  pains 
to  gain  him  by  presents,  etc.  When  anything  was 
presented  to  him,  his  reply  would  be  that  it  would 
serve  him  and  his  brother  to  live  on.  He  would  not 
enter  into  council  saying  that  he  was  a  prisoner,  and 
had  nothing  to  say ;  but  was  in  hopes  that  when  the 
grass  grew,  his  brother,  the  Big  Knife,  would  release 
him,  and  when  he  was  free  he  could  talk,  etc.  In 
short,  they  could  do  nothing  with  him." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      681 


NOTE  LXXVIII. 

HAMILTON'S  FORCE  (WHITE)  JANUARY  30,  1779. 

Return  of  the  state  of  His  Majesty's  Garrison  of 
Fort  Sackville,  3Oth  of  January,  1779: 


•*A 

V-i 

O 

'S 

Captains. 

Lieutenants.  | 

Surgeons.  | 

Bateau  Master. 

if. 

^ 
u 

•~r. 
cr, 

C 

5 

OS 

£ 

Sergeants.  | 

•^ 
'£ 

^ 

9 

^ 

c 

c^ 

c^ 

Indian 
Depart: 

I  Carpenters. 

« 

a 

'S 

1 
0 

Interpreters. 

Storekeeper. 

Volunteers. 

Royal  Artillery 

2 

2 

•ill 

Detroit  Volunteers  
Militia  

1 

1 
1 

1 

1 

i 

1 

:; 

84 

5 

"3 

'3 

*2 

i 

3 

Indian  Department 

Artificers 

Totals  

1 

2 

2 

i 

1 

2 

r, 

(it) 

3 

2 

i 

3 

3 

NOTE    LXXIX. 

ILLINOIS    COUNTY   ESTABLISHED. 

"O»  the  1 9th  of  November,  the  letters  and  papers 
of  Clark  were  read  in  the  Virginia  Assembly  and 
referred  to  a  committee  composed  of  Thomas  Mason, 
George  Mason  and  others,  who  prepared  a  bill  "for 
establishing  a  county  to  include  the  inhabitants  of  this 
[Virginia]  commonwealth,  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Ohio  River;  and  for  the  better  government  of  those 


682       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

inhabitants  [the  italicising  is  ours]."  (Kate  Mason 
Rowland's  Life  of  George  Mason,  vol.  I,  p.  307.) 
For  the  act  itself,  see  Hening's  Virginia  Statutes  at 
Large,  vol.  IX,  p.  552.  It  was  passed  between  the 
1 9th  of  November  and  the  I2th  of  December,  1778 
—  not  in  October,  as  generally  asserted,  although  at 
the  "October  session"  of  the  legislature. 

After  giving  a  brief  account  of  Clark's  success, 
in  the  Illinois  and  the  submission  of  Vincennes,  at  the 
instance  of  Gibault,  John  Fiske,  in  The  American 
Revolution  (vol.  II,  p.  106),  says:  "The  territory 
north  of  the  Ohio  was  thus  annexed  to  Virginia  as 
the  'county'  of  Illinois."  But,  of  course,  "the  terri 
tory  north  of  the  Ohio"  was  never  annexed  to  Vir 
ginia.  It  came  to  her,  as  she  claimed,  by  her  charter, 
long  before  Clark  marched  against  the  Illinois. 

The  county  thus  created  by  Virginia  was  the  only 
one  that  had  then  (or  that  has  since)  been  estab 
lished  in  the  United  States  without  any  boundary. 
This  has  given  rise  to  many  diverse  opinions  as  to 
what  was  its  real  territory. 

Mann  Butler  (History  of  Kentucky,  p.  65),  says: 
"Col.  Clark  having  desired  the  Governor  of  Virginia 
to  appoint  a  civil  commandant,  in  October,  1778,  an 
act  was  passed  establishing  the  County  of  Illinois, 
embracing  within  its  boundary  all  the  chartered  limits 
of  Virginia  west  of  the  Ohio  river." 

Says  E.  B.  Washburne  (The  Edward  Papers,  p. 
73n)  :  "Before  the  cession  of  the  Northwestern  Ter 
ritory  by  Virginia  to  the  United  States,  in  1784,  the 
Virginia  Assembly,  in  1778,  created  the  country  which 
had  been  conquered  by  George  Rogers  Clark  into 
the  County  of  Illinois,  the  mother  of  all  the  counties 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       683 

in  the  five  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michi 
gan,  and  Wisconsin.  .  .  .  This  [the  County  of 
Washington,  embracing  the  eastern  half  of  the  present 
State  of  Ohio]  was  the  first  county  made  out  of  the 
mother  county  of  Illinois." 

And  thus  Henry  Pirtle :  "In  October,  1778,  the 
county  of  Illinois  was  established  by  the  General  As 
sembly  of  Virginia,  covering  all  the  territory  ['be 
tween  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  river']  and  provision 
was  made  for  its  protection  by  reinforcements  to  the 
army  of  Clark."  (Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois, 

p.  5.) 

The  views  of  William  Frederick  Poole  are  as 
follows :  "The  military  conquest  of  the  Illinois  coun 
try  now  being  complete,  a  civil  government  was  forth 
with  established.  The  Assembly  o\f  Virginia  was 
prompt  to  act  as  soon  as  the  capture  of  Kaskaskia 
was  known.  In  October,  1778,  the  territory  north 
west  of  the  Ohio  was  constituted  a  county  of  Vir 
ginia,  and  was  named  the  county  of  Illinois."  ("The 
West,"  in  Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History 
of  America,  vol.  VI,  p.  729.) 

Edward  G.  Mason  (Early  Chicago  and  Illinois,  p, 
286),  writes:  "In  October,  1778,  the  general  assem 
bly  of  Virginia  passed  'an  act  for  establishing  the 
County  of  Illinois,  and  for  the  more  effectual  pro 
tection  and  defense  thereof/  It  provides  that  all 
the  citizens  of  Virginia  settled  on  the  western  side 
of  the  Ohio  shall  be  included  in  a  distinct  county,  to 
be  called  Illinois  County.  This  practically  included 
the  whole  region  afterward  known  as  the  North 
west  Territory." 


684       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

The  following  we  find  in  Kate  Mason  Rowland's 
Life  of  George  Mason,  vol.  I,  p.  314: 

"It  can  easily  be  imagined  with  what  pleasure  this 
recital  of  interesting  and  heroic  adventure  [Clark's 
letter  to  Mason,  from  Louisville,  Nov.  19,  1779]  was 
read  aloud  to  the  family  circle  at  'Gunston.'  Colonel 
Clark  had  probably  been  a  frequent  visitor  there,  and 
was  regarded  with  pride  and  affection  by  the  head  of 
the  house  [that  is,  by  George  Mason]  who  advised 
and  counselled  his  young  friend  evidently  as  if  he 
were  a  son.  George  Rogers  Clark  was  at  this  time 
about  twenty-five  [he  only  lacked  a  few  days  of 
being  twenty-seven  when  he  dated  his  letter].  He 
was  a  native  of  Albermarle  County,  but  had  been  for 
several  years  a  resident  of  Kentucky.  Already  dis 
tinguished  in  the  border  warfare  as  well  as  in  the  civil 
affairs  of  his  new  home,  and  identified  in  later  life 
with  its  fortunes,  he  is  claimed  as  one  of  the  founders 
of  this  [Kentucky]  commonwealth.  Kentucky,  how-* 
ever,  was  at  this  time  a  Virginia  County,  and  it  was 
as  a  Virginian  and  at  the  head  of  two  or  three 
thousand  [less  than  two  hundred]  Virginia  troops 
that  Colonel  Clark  conquered  for  his  state  the  new 
county  of  Illinois,  from  which  five  commonwealths 
[Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan  and  Wisconsin] 
were  to  emerge  later. 

A  recent  writer  (Roosevelt:  The  Winning  of  the 
West,  vol.  II,  p.  168),  declares: 

"The  Virginian  Government  took  immediate  steps 
to  provide  for  the  civil  administration  of  the  coun 
try  Clark  had  conquered.  In  the  fall  of  1778  the 
tntire  region  northwest  of  the  Ohio  was  constituted 
the  countv  of  Illinois. " 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       685 

Says  Wallace  (The  History  of  Illinois  and  Louisi 
ana  under  the  French  Rule,  p.  403)  : 

"In  October  of  the  latter  year  [1778],  the  Vir 
ginia  Legislature  erected  the  conquered  territory  into 
the  county  of  Illinois." 

And  thus  G.  C.  Brodhead  in  Settlements  West  of 
the  Alleghanys  Prior  to  1776"  -  —  Magazine  of  Amer 
ican  History,  vol.  XXIX,  p.  337:  "In  1778,  all  the 
territory  northwest  of  the  Ohio  was  formed  into  one 
county  called  Illinois." 

Upon  the  creation  .of  the  new  county,  Governor 
Henry  gave  the  following  as  part  of  his  instruc 
tions  to  Clark  (Dec.  12,  1778)  :  "You  are  to  re 
tain  the  command  of  the  troops  now  at  the  several 
posts  in  the  county  of  Illinois.  .  .  .  [which 
posts,  with  those]  on  the  Wabash  .  .  .  fall 
within  the  limits  of  the  county  now  erected  and  called 
'Illinois  county."  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  when 
the  new  county  was  established,  it  was  understood 
that  its  jurisdiction  extended  so  as  to  include  the 
Illinois  towns  and  the  Peoria  as  a  dependency,  with 
Vincennes  and  Wea  upon  the  Wabash.  Nowhere  else 
were  citizens  (actually  or  constructively  such)  of  Vir 
ginia,  peaceably  and  lawfully  "settled  on  the  western 
side  of  the  Ohio,"  when  the  act  was  passed;  hence, 
according  to  its  terms,  no  persons  in  the  western 
territory  outside  these  towns  lived  in  Illinois  county : 
and,  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that,  down  to  the  date 
of  the  cession  of  the  country  by  Virginia  to  the  United 
States,  no  Virginians  (actually  or  constructively 
such)  were  peaceably  and  lawfully  settled  anywhere 
"on  the  western  side  of  the  Ohio"  northward  of  Peoria 
or  eastward  of  Vincennes  and  Wea. 


686       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

,  When  John  Todd  took  office  as  Lieutenant  of 
Illinois  county,  he  understood  it  included  besides  ter 
ritory  on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  rivers,  lands  lying 
on  the  Wabash  and  Illinois  rivers;  but  he  claimed 
no  jurisdiction  throughout  the  entire  length  of  the 
valley  of  these  two  streams.  [Dillon's  Indiana  (ed. 
of  1859),  p.  168.  Mason's  Early  Chicago  and  Illinois^ 
P-  301.] 


NOTE    LXXX. 

RESPECTING   VIGO's   VISIT   TO   VINCENNES   AND    HIS 
RETURN. 

"Vigo  was  a  'Sardinian.'  He  was  born  in  1747, 
at  Mondovi.  As  a  Spanish  soldier,  he  was  with  his 
regiment,  first  at  Havana,  and  aftenvard  at  New 
Orleans,  when  that  city  was  under  the  sway  of  Spain. 
He  left  the  army  and  came  to  St.  Louis,  becoming 
the  partner  of  Don  Francisco  de  Leyba  and  was  soon 
extensively  engaged  in  the  fur-trade."  [H.  W.  Beck- 
with,  in  Reynold's  Illinois  (ed.  of  1887),  p.  423.] 

Mann  Butler,  who,  while  writing  his  History  of 
Kentucky,  was  in  communication  with  Vigo,  says  (p, 
79)  :  "After  all  this  success  with  the  Indians,  Colonel 
Clark  began  to  entertain  great  apprehensions  for  St. 
Vincents  [Vincennes]  ;  no  news  had  been  received 
for  a  considerable  length  of  time  from  that  place,  till 
on  the  29111  of  January,  1779,  Colonel  Vigo,  then  a 
merchant  in  partnership  with  the  Governor  of  St. 
Louis,  now  [1834]  a  venerable  and  highly  respectable 
citizen  of  Vincennes,  brought  intelligence  that  Gov 
ernor  Hamilton  had  marched  an  expedition  from  De- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      687 

troit,  which  had,  in  December,  captured  St.  Vincents, 
and  again  reduced  it  under  the  power  of  the  British." 

That  January  2Qth  was  the  day  Vigo  reached 
Clark  there  can  be  no  doubt.  "Bowman's  Journal," 
in  the  archives  of  the  Department  of  State,  Wash 
ington —  (Letters  to  Washington,"  vol.  33,  p.  90). 
Clark  to  Mason  —  Clark's  campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p. 
62.  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  137.  In  "Bow 
man's  Journal,"  as  printed  in  Clark's  Campaign  in  the 
Illinois,  p.  99,  the  date  is  given  as  the  27th,  but  this  is 
error. 

In  a  letter  dated  February  3d,  written  by  Clark 
to  the  Governor  of  Virginia,  he  speaks  of  Vigo's  ar 
rival  the  day  previous  (Calendar  of  Virginia  State 
Papers,  vol.  I,  pp.  315,  316)  ;  but  this  is  explained 
from  the  circumstance  that  the  letter  was  in  reality, 
written  January  3oth.  Concerning  Vigo's  visit  to 
Vincennes  and  his  subsequent  calling  on  Clark  in 
Kaskaskia,  the  latter  says:  (I.)  "Yesterday,  I  for 
tunately  got  every  intelligence  that  I  could  wish  for 
by  a  Spanish  gentleman  who  made  his  escape  from 
Mr.  Hamilton."  (Letter  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia, 
from  Kaskaskia,  Feb.  3  [Jan.  30]  1779  —  Calendar  of 
Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  I,  pp.  315,  316).  (II.) 
"But,  in  the  light  of  the  hurry,  a  Spanish  merchant, 
who  had  been  at  St.  Vincennes  [Vincennes]  arrived 
and  gave  the  following  intelligence"  (Letter  to  the 
Governor  of  Virginia,  April  29,  1779,  from  Kaskas 
kia —  Jcff-erson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222n).  (III.)  "In 
the  hight  of  our  anxiety,  on  the  evening  of  the  29th 
of  January,  1779,  Mr.  Vigo,  a  Spanish  merchant,  ar 
rived  from  St.  Vincents  [Vincennes],  and  was  there  at 
the  time  of  its  being  taken  [by  Hamilton]  and  gave 


688       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

me  every  intelligence  I  could  wish  to  have."  (Letter 
to  Mason,  Nov.  19,  1779  —  Clark's  Campaign  in  the 
Illinois,  pp.  62,  63.)  (IV.)  "On  the  29th  of  Jan 
uary,  1779,  in  the  hight  of  the  hurry,  a  Spanish  mer 
chant,  who  had  been  at  Post  Vincennes,  arrived  and 
gave  the  following  intelligence"  [Clark's  Memoir  in 
Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  137]. 

"Bowman's  Journal"  in  the  Department  of  State 
MSS.,  has  this  to  say  of  Vigo's  arrival  and  of  the 
information  he  imparted  to  Clark:  "Mr.  Vigo,  a 
Spanish  subject,  who  had  been  at  Post  St.  Vincent 
[Vincennes]  on  his  lawful  business,  arrived  [Jan. 
29th,  1779]  and  gave  us  intelligence  that  Gov.  Ham 
ilton  and  thirty  regulars  with  fifty  French  volun 
teers  and  about  four  hundred  Indians,  had  come  last 
November  [December]  and  taken  that  fort  with  Capt. 
Helm  and  several  other  Americans,  who  were  there, 
with  a  number  of  horses  designed  for  the  settlement 
of  Kentucky,  etc." 

One  of  Kentucky's  early  historians  says :  "While 
he  [Clark]  was  digesting  the  plan  of  his  future  oper 
ations,  he  received  undoubted  information  from  an 
itinerant  Spanish  merchant  [Vigo],  who  had  recently 
left  St.  Vincennes,  that  Hamilton,  reposing  himself 
on  the  security  which  he  derived  from  the  superiority 
of  his  force,  contemplated  a  leisurely  execution  of  his 
projects."  (Marshall:  History  of  Kentucky,  vol  I,  p. 
69.)  But  Reynolds  (see  his  Pioneer  History,  p.  101, 
ed.  1887)  says  Vigo  was  sent  to  Vincennes  by  Clark 
as  a  spy;  that  he  was  captured  by  the  Indians  and 
taken  to  Hamilton,  who  suspected  the  character  of 
his  mission;  and  that  he  was  released  on  the  ground 
of  his  being  a  Spanish  subject,  and  having  influential 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       689 

friends  among  the  French  residents.  The  only  asser 
tion  in  all  this  that  is  not  error  (and  that  one  is 
stated  inferentially)  is,  that  Vigo  had  influential 
friends  among  the  French  residents. 

In  Law's  Vincennes  (pp.  26-30),  there  is  an  ex 
tended  account  of  Vigo's  visit  to  Vincennes  and  his 
return,  which  is  replete  with  errors.  That  writer  says : 

"It  was  well  known  that  Governor  Abbott,  the 
commander  here  [at  Vincennes],  at  the  time  of  Clark's 
expedition  to  the  Illinois  had  gone  to  Detroit  on  bus 
iness  ;  and  that  no  great  time  would  elapse  before 
reinforcements  would  be  sent  from  that  post  to  Vin 
cennes.  Clark  could  not,  even  had  he  desired  it,  de 
tailed  any  of  his  own  command  to  garrison  the  place. 
Helm  was  here,  a  commandant  in  name  simply,  with 
out  a  single  soldier  under  his  command.  From  the 
first  of  August,  when  M.  Gibault  returned  [from 
Vincennes  to  Kaskaskia],  until  the  2Qth  of  January, 
1779,  Clark  had  not  received  a  single  communication 
from  Vincennes.  How  he  obtained  it,  and  the  conse 
quences  resulting  from  the  communication,  it  is  now 
may  purpose  to  briefly  unfold.  .  .  . 

"With  an  innate  love  of  liberty,  an  attachment 
to  republican  principles,  and  an  ardent  sympathy  for 
an  oppressed  people  struggling  for  their  rights,  he 
[Vigo]  overlooked  all  personal  consequences;  and 
as  soon  as  he  learnt  of  Clark's  arrival  at  Kaskaskia,  he 
crossed  the  line — went  there  and  tendered  him  his 
means,  and  his  influence,  both  of  which  were  joyfully 
accepted.  Knowing  Col.  Vigo's  influence  with 
the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  country,  and  desirous 
of  obtaining  some  information  from  Vincennes,  from 
which  he  had  not  heard  for  several  months,  Col. 
44 


690       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,' ETC. 

Clark,  in  a  conference  with  Col.  Vigo,  proposed  that 
he  should  come  and  learn  the  actual  state  of  affairs  at 
the  Post  [Vincennes].  Col.  Vigo  did  not  hesitate 
a  moment  in  obeying  this  command.  With  a  single 
servant,  he  proceeded  on  his  journey;  and  when  on 
the  river  Embarrass,  he  was  seized  by  a  party  of 
Indians,  plundered  of  everything  he  possessed,  and 
brought  a  prisoner  before  Hamilton,  then  in  posses 
sion  of  the  place,  which,  with  his  troops,  he  had,  a 
short  time  before,  captured,  holding  Capt.  Helm  a 
prisoner  of  war.  Being  a  Spanish  subject  and  con 
sequently  a  non-combatant,  Governor  Hamilton,  al 
though  he  strongly  suspected  the  motives  of  his 
[Vigo's]  visit,  dared  not  confine  him ;  he  accordingly 
admitted  him  to  his  parole,  on  the  single  condition, 
that  he  should  daily  report  himself  at  the  Fort.  On 
his  frequent  visits  there,  his  accurate  and  discerning 
rru'nd,  aided  by  the  most  powerful  memory  I  ever 
knew,  enabled  him  early  to  ascertain  the  state  of  the 
garrison,  its  numerical  force,  means  of  defence,  posi 
tion,  in  fine  all  the  matters  necessary  to  make  an 
accurate  report,  as  soon  as  liberated.  Hamilton,  in 
the  meantime,  embarrassed  by  his  detention,  besieged 
by  the  French  inhabitants  of  the  town,  by  whom  he 
was  beloved,  for  his  release;  and  finally  threatened 
by  them,  that  unless  released  they  would  refuse  all 
supplies  to  the  garrison,  yielded,  on  condition  that 
Col.  Vigo  would  sign  an  article  'not  to  do  any  act 
during  the  war  injurious  to  the  British  interests.' 
This  he  absolutely  and  positively  refused.  The  matter 
was  finally  adjusted,  on  an  agreement  entered  into 
on  part  of  Col.  Vigo  'not  to  do  anything  injurious 
to  the  British  interests  on  his  way  to  St.  Louis.'  The 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       691 

agreement  was  signed,  and  the  next  day  he  departed 
in  a  pirogue  down  the  Wabash  and  the  Ohio,  and 
up  the  Mississippi,  with  two  voyagers  accompany 
ing  him.  Col.  Vigo  faithfully  and  religiously  kept  the 
very  letter  of  his  bond.  On  his  way  to  St.  Louis 
he  did  nothing  injurious  in  the  slighest  degree  to 
British  interests.  But  he  had  no  sooner  set  his  foot 
on  shore  there,  and  changed  his  dress,  than  in  the 
same  pirogue  he  hastened  to  Kaskaskia." 

Law  adds,  subsequently  (p.  55),  more  errors: 
"It  was  entirely  through  the  means  of  Father  Gi- 
bault  that  Hamilton  released  Col.  Vigo,  when  sent  by 
Clark  to  ascertain  the  true  situation  of  affairs  at 
Vincennes.  He  was  captured  by  the  Indians  and 
taken  to  'Fort  Sackville,'  where  he  was  kept  a  prisoner 
on  parole  for  many  weeks,  and  released,  entirely  by 
the  interference  of  Father  Gibault,  and  the  declara 
tion  of  the  French  inhabitants  at  Vincennes,  who, 
with  their  priest  at  their  head,  after  service  on  the 
Sabbath,  marched  to  the  fort  and  informed  Hamilton 
'they  would  refuse  all  supplies  to  the  garrison  unless 
Vigo  was  released.'  ' 

The  errors  of  Judge  Law  to  be  especially  noted 
and  guarded  against  are :  ( i )  There  were  no  re 
inforcements  soon  to  be  sent  from  Detroit  to  Vin 
cennes  after  Gov.  Abbott's  departure.  (2)  Captain 
Helm  was  not  in  command  of  Fort  Sackville  without 
a  single  soldier  under  him.  (3)  Vigo  did  not  go  to 
Vincennes  at  the  request  of  Clark  —  was  not  sent 
there  by  the  latter.  (4)  Vigo  was  not  seized  by  the 
Indians,  plundered  of  everything  he  had,  and  then 
taken  a  prisoner  before  Hamilton.  (5)  Vigo  was  not 
paroled  by  Hamilton  in  Vincennes.  (6)  Hamilton 


692       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

did  not  release  Vigo  upon  any  condition  whatever, 
or  at  the  request  of  any  persons  —  he  simply  escaped, 
from  Vincennes,  where  Hamilton  had  detained  him 
and  on  his  way  to  St.  Louis  called  upon  Clark  at 
Kaskaskia. 

But  these  errors  are  somewhat  varied  by  different 
writers  "While  Clark  was  still  at  Kaskaskia  Colonel 
Francis  Vigo,  of  St.  Louis,  a  Spanish  subject  in 
sympathy  with  the  American  cause,  went  to  him  and 
tendered  his  services.  Clark  gladly  availed  himself 
of  the  offer,  and  Colonel  Vigo,  with  a  single  servant, 
proceeded  to  Vincennes  to  learn  the  strength  of  that 
post  and  the  possibilities  of  its  capture.  As  was  an 
ticipated,  he  was  captured,  and  brought  before  Gov 
ernor  Hamilton.  Being  a  Spanish  subject,  he  could 
not  be  held  as  a  spy  in  the  absence  of  proof.  He 
was,  however,  forbidden  to  leave  the  fort ;  but  finally, 
on  giving  a  written  pledge  not  to  attempt  anything 
injurious  to  British  interests  while  on  his  return  to 
St.  Louis,  he  was  allowed  to  depart.  Colonel  Vigo 
kept  his  pledge  by  going  to  St.  Louis  without  tell 
ing  on  the  way  anything  he  had  learned  of  the  force 
of  Hamilton  at  Vincennes.  He  however,  waited  at 
St.  Louis  only  long  enough  to  change  his  dress  and 
then  hurried  back  to  Kaskaskia,  arriving  there  the 
29th  of  January."  (Farmer's  History  of  Detroit  and 
Michigan,  p.  251.) 

"The  knowledge  which  Colonel  Clark  had  of  the 
condition  or  situation  of  the  fort  at  that  place  [Vin 
cennes],  obtained  through  information  received  from 
Colonel  Vigo,  sent  there  for  that  purpose,  enabled 
him  [Clark]  to  act  intelligently  and  to  know  precisely 
what  he  would  have  to  contend  with  [the  italicising 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       693 

is  mine]."  (John  Moses,  in  Magazine  of  Western 
History,  vol.  Ill,  p.  270). 

An  Indiana  historian,  writing  at  a  late  date,  gives 
this  relation : 

"He  [Vigo]  became  acquainted  with  Clark  and 
tendered  him  his  services.  Clark  requested  him  to 
go  to  Vincennes  and  report  from  time  to  time,  the 
exact  condition  of  affairs  there,  for  which  purpose 
Vigo  at  once  departed,  accompanied  by  one  servant. 
At  the  Embarrass  River  he  was  captured  by  hostile 
Indians,  who  carried  him  before  Hamilton,  then  lately 
arrived  at  the  post.  For  several  weeks  he  was  held 
on  a  parole  requirement  to  report  every  day  at  the 
fort,  then  called  Fort  Sackville,  he  having  refused 
to  accept  liberty  which  was  offered  him  if  he  would 
agree  'not  to  do  any  act  during  the  war  injurious 
to  the  British  interests.'  Father  Gibault,  who  was  at 
Vincennes,  interested  himself  actively  in  Vigo's  be 
half,  and  finally,  after  services  one  Sunday  morning 
in  January,  went  to  the  fort  at  the  head  of  his' 
parishioners,  and  notified  Hamilton  that  they  would 
furnish  no  more  supplies  to  the  garrison  until  Vigo 
was  released.  Hamilton,  having  no  evidence  against 
Vigo,  and  being  desirous  of  retaining  the  friendship 
of  the  villagers,  released  his  prisoner  on  condition 
that  he  should  'not  do  anything  injurious  to  the 
British  interests  on  his  way  to  St.  Louis/  Vigo  em 
barked  in  a  pirogue  with  two  voyageurs  and  sped 
away,  down  the  Wabash,  down  the  Ohio,  up  the  Mis 
sissippi,  until  the  Illinois  settlements  were  left  behind 
and  the  village  of  St.  Louis  was  reached.  He  spent 
a  few  minutes  changing  his  clothes  and  obtaining  a 
few  supplies,  and  was  in  the  boat  again ;  the  flying 


694       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

paddles  stir  the  chill  waters;  he  is  at  Kaskaskia,  and 
Clark  has  minute  and  exact  intelligence  concerning  all 
matters  at  Vincennes."  (Dunn's  Indiana,  pp.  139, 
140.) 

In  an  article  by  J.  C.  Wells,  entitled,  "Virginia's 
Conquest,"  printed  in  the  Magazine  of  American  His 
tory,  vol.  XVI,  there  is  (pp.  453,  454)  an  account  of 
Vigo's  visit  to  Vincennes  and  his  return.  In  it  are  to 
be  found  condensed  most  of  the  errors  previously 
published  by  writers  who  have  essayed  to  mention 
the  subject. 


NOTE   LXXXI. 

CLARK'S  ERRORS  AS  TO  INFORMATION  BROUGHT  HIM  BY 
VIGO. 

Nearly  three  months  atter  Vigo's  return  from 
Vincennes  Clark  wrote:  'That  gentleman  [Lieuten 
ant  Governor  Hamilton],  with  a  body  of  men,  pos 
sessed  himself  of  that  post  [Vincennes]  on  the  I5th 
[i7th]  of  December  last,  repaired  the  fortifications 
for  a  repository,  and  in  the  spring,  meant  to  attack 
this  place  [Kaskaskia],  which  he  made  no  doubt  of 
carrying;  where  he  was  to  be  joined  by  two  hun 
dred  Indians  from  Michilimackinac,  and  five  hundred 
Cherokees,  Chickasaws,  and  other  nations.  With  this 
body,  he  was  to  penetrate  up  the  Ohio  to  Fort  Pitt, 
sweeping  Kentucky  on  his  way,  having  light  brass 
cannon  for  the  purpose —  [to  be]  joined  on  his  march 
by  all  the  Indians  that  could  be  got  to  him.  He 
made  no  doubt  he  could  force  all  West  Augusta. 
This  expedition  [the  one  against  the  Illinois]  was 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      695 

ordered  by  the  Commander-in-chief  of  Canada.  .  .  . 
I  ordered  Major  [Captain]  Bowman  to  evacuate  the 
fort  at  Cohos  [Cahokia]  and  join  me  immediately, 
which  he  did."  (Clark  to  the  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  April  29,  1779,  from  Kaskaskia  —  Jefferson's 
Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222n.) 

Now,  the  inference  to  be  drawn  from  this  is,  that 
the  Colonel  had  been  put  in  possession  of  the  in 
formation  he  mentions  even  before  ordering  Cap 
tain  Bowman  to  evacuate  Cahokia.  But  this  could  not 
have  been  the  fact;  nor  did  he  get  any  such  news 
after  that  event  while  at  Kaskaskia,  down  to  the 
time  immediately  preceding  the  arrival  of  Vigo;  and 
the  latter  only  gave  him  a  portion  of  these  details. 

There  is  no  evidence  that  Hamilton  had  determined 
to  "penetrate  up  the  Ohio"  with  the  Indians,  or  that 
he  "made  no  doubt  he  could  force  all  West  Augusta." 
Any  determination  such  as  this  would,  beyond  all 
question,  have  been  communicated  by  the  Lieutenant 
Governor  to  General  Haldimand.  But  he  gave  the 
Commander-in-chief  no  intimation  of  any  such  design 
on  his  part,  further  than  that  he  would  like  to  as 
semble  in  the  Spring  the  Indians  north  and  south 
and  concert  with  them  a  general  invasion  of  the  bor 
der  settlements  of  Virginia  and  Pennsylvania.  And 
Haldimand,  in  commenting  on  the  news  received  from 
the  Lieutenant  Governor  at  Vincennes  makes  no  men 
tion  of  any  particular  determination  of  the  latter  be 
yond  attacking  the  Illinois.  In  speaking  subsequently 
of  Hamilton,  the  Commander-in-Chief  says: 

"He  seems  to  think,  next  spring,  to  attack  the 
two  posts  at  the  Illinois.  It  is  hoped,  in  that  case, 
that  he  will  at  least  take  along  one  of  the  three 


696       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

pounders  which  he  got  at  Vincennes,  so  as  to  make  a 
cross  fire,  or  else  the  rebels  might  easily  cover  them 
selves  against  one  cannon ;  that  is,  if  he  expects  noth 
ing  but  stockades  to  attack,  otherwise,  a  six-pounder 
field  piece  would  not  be  sufficient."  '  "Two  royal  mor 
tars,"  adds  the  General,"  would  be  useful  if  he  had 
more  artillery  men  than  two."  ("Remarks  on  Lieu 
tenant  Governor  Hamilton's  Letter  [of  Dec.  18-30, 
1778]  :"  Haldimand  MSS.) 

Clark,  in  his  letter  to  Mason  of  the  nineteenth  of 
November,  1779,  says :  "Governor  Hamilton's  party 
consisted  of  about  eight  hundred  men  when  he  took 
possession  of  that  post  on  the  I7th  day  of  December 
past.  Finding  the  season  too  far  spent  for  his  in 
tention  against  K'askaskia,  he  had  sent  nearly  the 
whole  of  his  Indians  out  in  different  parties  to  war, 
but  to  embody  again  as  soon  as  the  weather  would 
permit  and  complete  his  design.  He  had  also  sent 
messengers  to  the  Southern  Indians,  five  hundred  of 
whom  he  expected  to  join  him.  He  had  only  eighty 
troops  in  garrison."  (Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illi 
nois,  p.  63.) 

The  Colonel,  as  we  have  seen,  was  inclined  to 
exaggeration.  He  indulged  in  this  property  occa 
sionally  in  this  letter,  especially,  it  will  be  noticed, 
as  to  the  number  of  the  enemy  under  Hamilton  when 
the  latter  took  possession  of  Vincennes.  There  is 
no  reason  to  doubt  but  that  Vigo  reported  a  little 
less  than  five  hundred. 

Years  after  Clark  gives  Vigo's  recital  as  follows : 
"That  the  hostile  Indians  were  to  meet  at  Post  Vin 
cennes  in  the  spring,  drive  us  out  of  the  Illinois,  and 
attack  the  Kentucky  settlements  in  a  body,  joined  by 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      697 

their  southern  friends;  that  all  the  goods  were  taken 
from  the  merchants  of  Port  Vincennes  for  the  King's 
use ;  that  the  troops  under  Hamilton  were  repairing 
the  fort,  and  expected  a  reinforcement  from  Detroit 
in  the  Spring;  that  they  appeared  to  have  plenty  of 
all  kinds  of  stores ;  that  they  were  strict  in  their 
discipline,  but  that  he  did  not  believe  they  were  under 
much  apprehension  of  a  visit ;  and  believed  that,  if 
we  could  get  there  undiscovered,  we  might  take  the 
place.  In  short,  we  got  every  information  from  this 
gentleman  that  we  could  wish  for,  as  he  had  good 
opportunities  and  had  taken  great  pains  to  inform 
himself  with  a  design  to  give  intelligence."  [Clark's 
Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp.  137, 


NOTE    LXXXII. 

SOME  PUBLISHED  ERRORS  AS  TO  THE  REASONS  INDUC 
ING  CLARK  TO  UNDERTAKE  THE  CAPTURE  OF  HAM 
ILTON  IN  VINCENNES. 

The  American  commander  in  his  letter  to  the  Gov 
ernor  of  Virginia,  of  the  2Qth  of  April,  1779,  ex 
aggerated  the  supposed  dangers  surrounding  him: 
"Destruction  seemed  to  hover  over  us  from  every 
quarter;  detached  parties  of  the  enemy  were  in  the 
neighborhood  every  day,  but  afraid  to  attack."  (Jef 
ferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222n.)  There  was  only 
one  party  —  the  one  under  the  Ottawa  chief  —  of  the 
enemy  in  the  Illinois  at  this  period ;  and  it  was  only 
from  one  quarter  that  "destruction  seemed  to  hover 
over"  them. 


698       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"We  now  viewed  ourselves,"  afterward  wrote 
Clark,  "in  a  very  critical  situation  —  in  a  manner  cut 
off  from  any  intercourse  between  us  and  the  United 
States.  We  knew  that  Governor  Hamilton  in  the 
Spring-,  by  a  junction  of  his  northern  and  southern 
Indians  (which  he  had  prepared  for)  would  be  at 
the  head  of  such  a  force  that  nothing  in  this  quarter 
could  withstand  his  arms  —  that  Kentucky  must  im 
mediately  fall ;  and  well  if  the  desolation  would  end 
there.  If  we  could  immediately  make  our  way  good 
to  Kentucky,  we  were  convinced  that  before  we  could 
raise  a  force  even  sufficient  to  save  that  country,  it 
would  be  too  late,  as  all  the  men  in  it,  joined  by 
the  troops  we  had,  would  not  be  sufficient ;  and  to 
get  timely  succor  from  the  interior  countries  [of  Vir 
ginia]  was  out  of  the  question.  We  saw  but  one 
alternative,  which  was  to  attack  the  enemy  in  their 
quarters.  If  we  were  fortunate,  it  would  save  the 
whole.  If  otherwise,  it  would  be  nothing  more  than 
what  would  certainly  be  the  consequence  if  we  should 
not  make  the  attempt.  .  .  .  These  and  many 
other  similar  reasons,  induced  us  to  resolve  to  at 
tempt  the  enterprise,  which  met  with  the  approbation 
of  every  individual  belonging  to  us."  [Clark's  Memoir 
Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  138.] 

But  Hamilton  had  not  prepared  for  a  junction 
with  his  northern  and  southern  Indians.  And  it  is 
evident  that  what  Clark  says  about  making1  his  way 
to  Kentucky  and  his  inability  to  hold  that  country 
are  thoughts  conjured  up  years  after. 

"Colonel  Clark,"  says  a  Western  writer,  "now  be 
gan  to  entertain  great  fears  for  the  safety  of  Vin- 
cennes.  No  intelligence  had  been  received  from  that 


HISTORY  OP  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       699 

post  for  a  long  time;  but  on  the  29th  of  January, 
1779,  Colonel  Vigo  brought  intelligence  that  Gover 
nor  Hamilton  of  Detroit,  had  marched  an  expedition 
against  the  place  in  December,  and  again  reduced  the 
inhabitants  and  the  fort,  and  re-established  the  British 
power.  The  expedition  had  been  fitted  out  on  a  large 
scale,  with  the  view  of  recapturing  Kaskaskia,  and 
making  an  assault  along  the  whole  line  of  the  Ken 
tucky  frontier.  But  owing  to  the  advanced  period 
of  the  season,  Governor  Hamilton  had  postponed  the 
further  execution  of  this  grand  scheme  of  conquest 
until  spring,  when  he  contemplated  reassembling  his 
forces. 

"Having  received  this  timely  intelligence  of  the 
British  governor's  designs,  Colonel  Clark  with  char 
acteristic  promptitude  and  decision,  determined  to 
anticipate  him,  and  strike  the  first  blow.  He  accord 
ingly  made  immediate  preparation  for  an  expedition 
against  Vincennes."  [Collins:  History  of  Kentucky 
(ed.  of  1877)  p.  138.] 

But  it  does  not  appear  that  Clark,  to  the  moment 
of  Vigo's  arrival,  had  given  much  thought  about 
Vincennes;  —  it  was  the  Illinois  he  feared  was  the 
object  of  Hamilton's  movement  before  reported  to 
him  as  being  under  way.  That  Hamilton,  in  march 
ing  from  Detroit,  had  in  view  the  making  of  an 
assault  along  the  whole  line  of  the  Kentucky  bor 
der  is  a  declaration,  as  before  explained,  not  war 
ranted  by  the  words  of  the  Lieutenant  Governor  be- 
before  or  after  leaving  that  place. 

"Col.  Clark,  who  kept  himself  well  advised  of  the 
movements  of  the  enemy,  having  also  learned  that 
Major  de  Peyster  at  Mackinac,  had  dispatched  Capt. 


700       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Chas.  de  Langlade  to  raise  a  cooperative  force  of  In 
dians  to  act  with  Hamilton  at  Vincennes  or  more 
directly  by  way  of  the  Illinois  River,  upon  Cahokia, 
decided  with  his  accustomed  daring  and  sagacity,  not 
to  wait  for  the  favorable  weather,  the  want  of  which 
had  delayed  the  British  commander,  but  to  take  ad 
vantage  of  the  absence  of  the  Indians,  who  were  still 
marauding  across  the  Ohio,  and  become  the  attack 
ing  party  himself."  (Moses,  in  his  Illinois:  Historical 
and  Statistical,  vol.  I,  p.  155,  citing,  as  to  De  Peyster, 
Magazine  of  Western  History,  vol.  III.)  It  is  cer 
tain,  however,  that  when  the  Colonel  resolved  to  at 
tack  Hamilton  in  Vincennes  he  had  no  knowledge  of 
what  De  Peyster  had  done  at  Michilimackinac  to  aid 
the  Lieutenant  Governor. 


NOTE    LXXXIII. 

CONCERNING    THE    GUNBOAT    WILLING. 

"The  boat,"  wrote  Clark  in  his  letter  to  the  Vir 
ginia  Governor,  of  February  3d,  "is  to  make  her  way 
if  possible  and  take  her  station  ten  leagues  below  St. 
Vincent  [Vincennes]  until  further  orders.  If  I  am 
defeated,  she  is  to  join  Col.  [David]  Rogers  on  the 
Mississippi  [of  whom  mention  is  made  in  this 
narrative].  She  has  great  stores  of  ammunition  on 
board,  and  is  commanded  by  Lieut.  John  Rogers. 
I  shall  march  across  by  land  with  the  rest  of  my 
boys."  (Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  I, 
p.  316.) 

In  his  letter  of  April  29,  1779,  Clark  says:  "T 
immediately  dispatched  a  small  galley,  which  I  had 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       701 

fitted  up,  mounting  two  four-pounders  and  four 
swivels,  —  with  a  company  of  men  and  necessary 
stores  on  board,  with  orders  to  force  her  way,  if  pos 
sible,  and  station  herself  a  few  miles  below  the  enemy ; 
suffer  nothing  to  pass  her  and  wait  for  further  or 
ders."  (Jefferson's  Works,  loc.  cit.) 

In  his  Memoir,  Clark  says :  "We  had  great  de 
pendence  on  this  galley.  She  was  far  superior  to 
anything  the  enemy  could  fit  out  without  building  a 
vessel ;  and,  at  the  worst,  if  we  were  discovered,  we 
could  build  a  number  of  large  pirogues,  such  as  they 
possessed,  to  attend  her,  and  with  such  a  little  fleet, 
perhaps,  pester  the  enemy  very  much ;  and  if  we  saw 
it  our  interest  force  a  landing;  at  any  rate,  it  would 
be  sometime  before  they  could  be  a  match  for  us  on 
the  water"  [Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  139]. 
But  all  this,  it  is  clear,  is  a  draw  on  his  imagina 
tion. 

A  recent  writer  has  the  following  concerning 
Clark's  sending  a  part  of  his  force  by  water: 

"Sending  a  few  boats,  with  light  artillery  and 
provisions,  to  ascend  the  Ohio  and  Wabash,  Clark 
started  overland  from  Kaskaskia."  (Fiske:  The 
American  Revolution  (vol.  II,  p.  106.)  But  Clark 
repeatedly  declares  he  only  sent  one  boat ;  and  all 
other  contemporaneous  statements  which  refer  to  the 
matter,  confirm  what  he  says. 

Bancroft's  language  [History  of  the  United  States 
(ed.  of  1885),  vol.  V,  p.  313]  concerning  the  com 
mander  of  the  Willing  is  calculated  to  mislead;  for 
he  speaks  of  the  boat  as  having  been  put  under  the 
command  of  "Captain  John  Rogers  [the  italicising  is 
mine.!" 


702       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE    LXXXIV. 

ERRONEOUS  TRADITION   CONCERNING  PROVISIONS  TAKEN 
BY    CLARK    ON    HIS    MARCH    TO    VINCENNES. 

A  tradition  has  found  its  way  into  print  to  the 
effect  that  nothing  was  taken  along  as  food  except 
parched  corn  and  jerked  beef  (Monnette's  History  of 
the  Valley  of  the  Mississippi,  vol.  I,  p.  427)  ;  but 
this  is  clearly  erroneous.  There  was  no  lack  of  pro 
visions  in  the  Illinois  towns  at  that  date;  there  was 
plenty  of  flour  and  other  necessaries.  The  writer  just 
cited  evidently  had  no  suspicions  that  horses  were 
taken  along;  —  he  not  only  fills  the  men's  knapsacks 
with  parched  corn  and  jerked  beef,  but  these  supplies 
were  to  be  carried  by  the  soldiers,  not  to  be  taken  on 
pack-horses. 


NOTE  LXXXV. 

AS  TO  CLARK'S  FORCE  WHICH  WENT  AGAINST 
VINCENNES. 

The  idea  conveyed  in  Clark's  letter  to  Governor 
Henry  of  "Feb.  3"  (really  Jan.  30)  1779,  as  printed  in 
the  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  Vol.  I.,  p.  315, 
is,  that  the  entire  force  of  the  Colonel  —  both  those 
which  were  to  go  by  water  and  those  to  march  by  land 
• — •  would  consist  of  between  one  hundred  and  seventy 
and  one  hundred  and  eighty  men ;  but,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  Clark  raised  one  entire  company  of  militia  — 
Captain  Charleville's  —  after  writing  that  letter. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      70S 

In  "Bowman's  Journal"  in  the  Department  of 
State  MSS.,  under  date  of  Feb.  5th,  it  is  recorded 
"Raised  another  Company  of  Volunteers  under  the 
command  of  Capt.  Francois  Charleville,  which  added 
to  our  force,  and  increased  our  number  to  170,  includ 
ing  the  artillery  [men]  and  pack-horsemen."  This,  as 
to  the  number  of  men  under  Clark,  is  in  the  same 
words  as  printed  in  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois 
p.  100.  The  same  number  is  given  in  Clark's  Memoir 
-Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  136.* 

It  is  evident  the  force  on  board  the  Willing  (which 
had  already  departed)  is  not  included  in  the  number 
mentioned.  And  Schieffelin,  afterward,  in  his  Loose 
Notes,  says  Clark  had  160  men  —  meaning,  probably, 
exclusive  of  officers,  and,  certainly  not  including  those 
on  the  Willing.  The  whole  number,  then,  "with  the 
boat's  crew,"  and  including  officers,  was  218,  making 
"a  little  over  two  hundred,"  as  stated  by  the  Colonel— 
notwithstanding,  in  his  letter  to  Gov.  Henry,  of  April 
29,  1779,  as  printed  in  Jefferson's  Works,  Vol.  L,  p. 
222n,  he  gives  his  force  that  went  by  land  as  consist 
ing  of  130  men. 

Clark's  words  in  his  letter  of  "Feb.  3"  (really  Jan. 
30)  are: 

"I  shall  set  out  in  a  few  days  with  all  the  force  I 
can  raise  of  my  own  troops  and  a  few  militia  that  I  can 
depend  on  amounting  in  the  whole  to  only  [one]  hun 
dred  and  seventy  —  men,  -  -  of  which  go  on  board 

*  In  Washington-Irving  Correspondence,  p.  392,  the  force 
Clark  marched  with  is  erroneously  put  down  as  175.  So,  also, 
in  the  History  of  the  Girtys,  p.  90,  where  it  is  said  —  "with 
a  force  of  one  hundred  and  seven,ty-six  men,  he  started  for 

Vincennes." 


704       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

a  small  galley  fitted  out  some  time  ago."  The  blank 
before  "men"  indicates  that  in  the  Colonel's  judgment 
he  would  have  over  170  but  less  than  180  men  all  told. 
Of  these,  a  certain  number,  but  he  could  not  tell  how 
many,  is  indicated  in  the  next  blanks  as  being  those 
he  would  send  on  board  the  galley.  William  Wirt 
Henry,  in  his  Life  of  Patrick  Henry,  Vol.  III.,  p.  221, 
omits  the  first  blank,  and  gives  the  word  "some"  in 
lieu  of  the  two  which  follow  the  word  "men."  This 
changes  the  sense  materially. 

Lyman  C.  Draper,  in  Appleton's  Cyclopedia  of 
American  Biography  (art.  "George  Rogers  Clark"), 
says:  "[Clark]  with  fewer  than  170  men,  all  told, 
marched  across  the  country."  This  conclusion  reached 
by  Draper  is,  in  reality,  without  meaning  for  want  of 
definiteness,  —  "less  than  170"  might  mean  169,  or  no 
more  than  130  as  printed  in  Jefferson's  works,  Vol.  I., 
p.  222n. 


NOTE  LXXXVI. 

AS  TO   THE  DISTANCE  TO   BE   TRAVELED   BY  CLARK  FROM 

KASKASKIA   TO   VINCENNES    ON    HIS    MARCH 

ACROSS  THE  COUNTRY. 

Clark  had  been  told  by  the  inhabitants  of  the  Illi 
nois  that  it  was  eighty  leagues  to  Vincennes,  which 
was  their  estimate.  The  Colonel  mistook  these  for 
English  leagues  —  three  miles  each,  whereas  they  were 
French  leagues,  making  the  distance  about  one  hun 
dred  and  ninety-two  miles  —  a  six  days'  journey  on 
horseback  ordinarily,  although  parties  had  been  known, 
when  hard  pressed,  to  make  the  distance  in  four  days ; 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       705 

and  Clark  himself  afterwards,  it  may  be  premised, 
made  it  in  that  time.  Of  course  the  trail  was  by  no 
means  a  "bee  line."  [See,  as  to  the  distance  being  called 
by  the  French  eighty  leagues,  Denny's  Military  Jour 
nal,  (Memoir  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  Vol.  VII.) ,  p.  422.]  As  to  its  being  an  ordi 
nary  six  day's  journey,  see  Bouquet's  Expedition 
(Cincinnati  Reprint:  1868),  p.  144.  In  reckoning  the 
distance  in  miles,  the  number  has  been,  by  English 
writers,  usually  understood.  Compare  Denny's  Jour 
nal,  pp.  312,  422;  Monnette's  History  of  the  Valley  of 
the  Mississippi,  Vol.  II.,  p.  427.  E.  A.  Bryan,  in 
The  Magazine  of  American  History,  Vol.  XXI,  p.  401, 
puts  the  distance  traveled  by  Clark  as  "some  two  hun 
dred  miles." 

"To  the  Illinois  by  land  [from  Vincennes], 
the  road  is  chiefly  through  plains  and  extensive 
meadows  —  240  miles  .  .  .  The  above  distances 
are  all  computed."  ("Roads  from  Detroit  to  the  Illinois 
by  way  of  the  Forts  Miami,  Wea  and  Vincennes,  with 
some  Remarks":  Haldimand  MSS.)  And  Hamilton 
makes  the  distance  the  same  in  his  letters  to  Haldi 
mand  of  Dec,  18-30,  1778,  and  July  6,  1781.  But  he 
and  the  itinerary  before  mentioned  undoubtedly  con 
sidered  the  French  estimate  —  eighty  leagues  —  as 
making  two  hundred  and  forty  miles. 


45 


706       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE  LXXXVII. 

SOME    ERRORS    IN    ^BOWMAN'S    JOURNAL^    AS    PRINTED, 

CORRECTED      BY      THE      MS.      COPY      IN      THE 

DEPARTMENT  OF  STATE. 

The  entry  for  the  I2th  of  February  as  printed, 
reads  thus : 

"i2th.  Marched  across  Cat  plains;  saw  and  killed 
numbers  of  buffaloes.  The  road  very  bad  from  the 
immense  quantity  of  rain  that  had  fallen.  The  men 
much  fatigued.  Encamped  on  the  edge  of  the  woods. 
This  plain  or  meadow  being  fifteen  or  more  miles 
across,  it  was  late  in  the  night  before  the  baggage  and 
troops  got  together.  Now  twenty-one  miles  from  St. 
Vincents." 

But  in  the  MS.  Journal  the  entry  reads  as  follows : 
"12.  Marched  across  Cat  plain,  [that  is,  ''Cat 
Meadow,"  or  "Cat  Prairie.]  Saw  and  killed  numbers 
of  buffaloe.  The  roads  very  bad  from  the  immense 
quantity  of  rain  that  had  fallen.  The  men  much  fa 
tigued.  Encamped  at  the  edge  of  the  wood,  —  this 
plain  or  meadow  being  fifteen  or  more  miles  across. 
It  was  late  in  the  night  before  the  troops  and  baggage 
got  together.  Now  21  leagues  from  St.  Vincents." 
[These  were  undoubtedly  French  leagues,  making  the 
distance  about  fifty  miles.] 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       707 


NOTE  LXXXVIII. 

ROOSEVELT    ON    THE    FEASTS   ENJOYED   BY    CLARK^S    MEN 
ON  THEIR  MARCH  TO  VINCENNES. 

The  author  of  The  Winning  of  the  West  (Vol.  II, 
pp.  70,  71)  says:  "He  [Clark]  encouraged  the  men 
to  hunt  game;  and  to  'feast  on' it  like  Indian  war- 
dancers'  [quoting  the  Memoir],  each  company  in  turn 
inviting  the  others  to  the  smoking  and  plentiful  ban 
quets.  One  day  they  saw  great  herds  of  buffaloes  and 
killed  many  of  them.  They  had  no  tents ;  but  at  night 
fall  they  kindled  huge  campfires,  and  spent  the  even 
ings  merrily  round  the  piles  of  blazing  logs,  in  hunter 
fashion,  feasting  on  bear's  ham  and  buffalo  hump,  elk 
saddle,  venison  haunch,  and  the  breast  of  the  wild 
turkey,  some  singing  of  love  and  the  chase  and  war, 
and  others  dancing  after  the  manner  of  the  French 
trappers  and  wood-runners.  Thus  they  kept  on, 
marching  hard  but  gleefully  and  in  good  spirits." 
.  .  .  Evidently  there  is  here  somewhat  of  a  draft 
on  the  imagination. 


NOTE  LXXXIX. 

PLAN   ADOPTED  BY  CLARK  IN  CROSSING  THE  LITTLE  WA- 
BASH  AND  ITS  TRIBUTARY. 

The  plan  described  in  the  text  seems  to  have  been 
the  one  adopted  in  crossing  the  Little  Waash  and  its 
northern  affluent,  so  far  as  can  be  judged  of  from  the 
meager  accounts  given.  In  his  letter  to  Mason, 
Clark  says ; 


708       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"In  three  days,  we  contrived  to  cross  by  building  a 
large  canoe  —  ferried  across  the  two  channels  — the 
rest  of  the  way,  we  waded,  building  scaffolds  at  each 
[channel]  to  lodge  our  baggage  on  until  the  horses 
crossed  to  take  it.  It  rained  nearly  a  third  of  our 
march,  but  we  never  halted  for  it." 


NOTE  XC. 

CONCERNING   CLARK^S   ROUTE   FROM    KASKASKIA  TO  THE 
EMBARRASS  RIVER. 

There  is  a  trail  laid  down  on,  A  New  Map  of  the 
Western  Parts  of  Virginia,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland, 
and  North  Carolina,  by  Thomas  Hutchins,  London, 
1778,  as  a  uRoad  from  Kaskaskia  Village  to  Post 
Vincient."  This  may  have  been  followed  as  far  as 
the  Embarrass  river  by  Clark,  but  no  farther.  On 
Blanchard's  Historical  Map  of  Illinois,  "Clark's 
Route"  is  laid  down  even  to  Vincennes.  It  is,  how 
ever,  wholly  unreliable.  The  first  known  point  reached 
after  leaving  Kaskaskia  is  when  the  Little  Wabash  and 
its  northern  tributary  was  crossed,  a  short  distance 
above  their  confluence,  in  the  southeast  part  of  the 
present  Clay  county,  Illinois.  The  course  thence  to 
the  Embarrass,  it  is  certain,  was  nearly  on  a  line  to 
wards  Vincennes.  The  direction  then  taken  will  here 
after  be  considered. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       709 


NOTE  XCL 

ESCAPF  OF  CAPT.    WILLIAMS' S   BROTHER   FROM    FORT 
SACKVILLE. 

"Bowman's  Journal"  as  printed  —  Clark's  Cam 
paign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  102  —  says  it  was  Captain 
Willing'*  brother  who  made  his  escape  from  Fort 
Sackville ;  but  this  is  manifestly  an  error  —  either  of 
the  types  or  of  the  copyist ;  and  the  lauguage  of  the 
same  in  the  Department  of  State  MSS.,  makes  the 
correction,  by  giving  the  name  as  Williams  —  Captain 
Williams' s  brother.  But  the  words  of  the  latter  im 
mediately  following,  are  apt  to  mislead  unless  rightly 
considered.  The  sentence  stands  thus :  "Captain 
William's  brother  (who  was  taken  in  the  fort)  had 
made  his  escape  also  to  us."  But  he  was  not  taken 
in  the  fort;  and  his  having  made  his  escape  "to  us" 
means,  to  the  Americans  —  not  directly  to  Clark's 
force. 


NOTE  XCII. 

FICTITIOUS   ACCOUNTS    AS   TO    THE    METHODS    OF    CLARK 
TO   RAISE  THE   COURAGE  OF   HIS   MEN. 

What  the  favorite  song  was  that  Clark's  men  in 
dulged  in  is  unknown.  The  following  tradition  con 
cerning  songs  sung  by  the  drummer  of  the  force  is 
certainly  amusing: 

"Part  of  the  force  .  .  .  went  by  boat,  but  all 
of  them  really  went  by  water.  Daily  rains  made  the 


710       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

journey  more  and  more  disagreeable,  yet  nothing 
could  dampen  the  ardor  of  the  troops.  The  drummer 
of  the  party  was  a  jovial  little  Irishman,  with  a  rich 
voice  and  a  memory  well  stored  with  comic  songs,  all 
of  them  full  of  the  'Begone-dull-care'  spirit  that  ani 
mates  the  natives  of  Erin's  Isle.  When  the  men  were 
wading  through  mud  and  water,  Colonel  Clark  would 
seat  the  drummer  on  his  drum,  on  which  he  floated  and 
sang,  keeping  up  the  spirits  of  his  men  with  his  lively 
melodies."  (Farmer's  History  of  Detroit  and  Mich 
igan,  p.  252.)  But  Law  (in  his  Vincennes,  p.  32n) 
gives  the  account,  it  seems,  first  of  any  in  print,  and  as 
follows : 

"Without  food,  benumbed  with  cold,  up  to  their 
waists  in  water  covered  with  broken  ice,  the  men  com 
posing  Clark's  troops  at  one  time  mutinied,  refused  to 
march.  All  the  persuasions  of  Clark  had  no  effect  on 
the  half-starved  and  half-frozen  soldiers.  In  one  of 
the  companies  was  a  small  boy  who  acted  as  drummer. 
In  the  same  company  was  a  sergeant,  standing  six  feet 
two  inches  in  his  stockings,  —  stout,  athletic,  and  de 
voted  to  Clark.  Finding  that  his  eloquence  had  no 
effect  upon  the  men,  in  persuading  them  to  continue 
their  line  of  march,  Clark  mounted  the  little  drummer 
on  the  shoulders  of  the  stalwart  sergeant,  and  gave  or 
ders  to  him  to  plunge  into  the  half-frozen  water.  He 
did  so,  the  little  drummer  beating  the  charge  from  his 
lofty  perch,  while  Clark,  with  sword  in  hand,  followed 
them  giving  the  command,  as  he  threw  aside  the  float 
ing  ice  —  'Forward !'  Elated  and  amused  with  the 
scene,  the  men  promptly  obeyed,  holding  their  rifles 
above  their  heads  and  in  spite  of  all. obstacles,  reached 
the  higher  land  beyond  them  safely." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       711 


NOTE  XCIII. 

CLARK'S  CONDENSED  STATEMENT  OF  HIS  MARCH  FROM 
KASKASKIA  TO  WARRIORS'  ISLAND. 

A  condensed  statement  of  the  march  from  Kas- 
kaskia  to  Warriors'  Island  as  given  by  Clark  in  his 
letter  of  April  29,  1779,  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia 
is  as  follows : 

"Although  so  small  a  body,  it  took  me  sixteen  days 
on  the  route.  The  inclemency  of  the  season,  high 
waters,  etc.,  seemed  to  threaten  the  loss  of  the  expedi 
tion.  When  within  three  leagues  of  the  enemy,  in  a 
direct  line,  it  took  us  five  days  to  cross  the  drowned 
lands  of  the  Wabash  river,  having  to  wade  often,  up 
wards  of  two  leagues,  to  our  breast  in  water.  Had  not 
the  weather  been  warm,  we  must  have  perished.  But, 
on  the  evening  of  the  23d,  we  got  on  dry  land,  in  sight 
of  the  enemy." 


NOTE  XCIV. 

CONCERNING  THE  DETACHMENT  OF  LIEUT.   BAYLEY. 

Clark,  in  his  letter  to  Mason  —  Clark's  Campaign 
in  the  Illinois,  p.  68  —  says  :  "I  detached  Lieutenant 
Bayley  and  a  party  to  attack  the  fort  at  a  certain  sig 
nal,  and  I  took  possession  of  the  strongest  posts  of  the 
town  with  the  main  body."  But  Clark's  Journal  (in 
the  Haldimand  MSS.)  makes  it  evident  that  no  signal 
was  to  be  waited  for.  The  word  "posts"  is  a  misprint ; 
it  should  be  "parts." 


712       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Both  "Bowman's  Journal"  in  the  Department  of 
State  MSS.  and  the  printed  one  say  Bayley  had  four 
teen  regulars  with  him,  and  Clark's  Memoir  —  Dil 
lon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  P-  X48,  says  the  same;  but 
the  Colonel,  in  his  Journal,  mentions  fifteen  riflemen, 
and  I  have  followed  his  statement.  It  is  evident  the 
men  detached  were  not  of  the  Kaskaskia  or  Cahokia 
volunteers. 


NOTE  XCV, 

CONCERNING    CLARK^S    ENTRY    INTO    VINCENNES. 

Captain  Chesne,  who  had  not  before  heard  of  the 
coming  of  the  Americans,  was,  it  is  to  be  presumed, 
considerably  frightened,  as  he  saw  but  one  flag  —  a 
white  one  —  and  heard  but  one  drum.  And  thus  Ban 
croft  [History  of  the  United  States  (ed.of  1885),  Vol. 
V-,  p.  313),  who  evidently  sees  with  Chesne's  eyes: 

"On  the  twenty-third,  just  at  evening,  Clark  and 
his  companions  reached  dry  land,  and,  making  no  de 
lay,  with  a  white  flag  flying,  they  entered  Vincennes." 

"Bowman's  Journal"  as  printed  —  Clark's  Cam 
paign,  in  the  Illinois  (p.  105)  — gives  the  time  of  the 
Colonel's  arrival  as  mentioned  in  the  text ;  so,  also,  the 
one  in  the  Department  of  State.  But  the  wording  of 
the  former  is,  —  "After  wading  to  the  edge  of  the 
water  breast  high,  we  mounted  the  rising  ground  the 
town  is  built  on,  about  8  o'clock;"  while  the  latter 
says  :  "After  wading  to  the  edge  of  the  town  in  water 
breast  high,  we  mounted  the  rising  ground  the  town  is 
built  on  about  8  o'clock." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       713 

The  Colonel  (in  his  Journal)  says  he  entered  the 
upper  end  of  the  town.  This  is  error  and  is  corrected 
by  Chesne.  Clark  in  his  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana 
(ed.  of  1859),  P-  *4&>  says,  substantially,  that  the  main 
body  did  not  enter  the  town  in  the  same  place  as  that 
by  Lieut.  Bayley  with  his  detachment. 

"This  [the  march  of  Clark  from  Kaskaskia  to  Vin- 
cennes]  was  one  of  the  most  wonderful  of  the  military 
expeditions  recorded  in  our  history,  and  paralleled  only 
by  that  of  Arnold  from  the  Kennebec  to  the  Chau- 
diere,  in  the  late  Autumn  of '1775.  For  a  week  Clark 
and  his  followers  traversed  the  'drowned  lands'  of 
Illinois,  suffering  every  privation  from  wet,  cold  and 
hunger.  When  they  arrived  at  the  Little  Wabash,  at 
a  point  where  the  forks  of  that  stream  are  three  .miles 
apart,  they  found  the  intervening  space  covered  with 
water  to  the  depth  of  three  feet.  The  points  of  dry 
land  were  five  miles  apart  and  all  that  distance,  the 
hardy  soldiers  of  the  West,  in  the  month  of  February, 
waded  the  cold  snow-flood  in  the  forest,  arm-pit  deep ! 
It  seemed  to  the  people  and  soldiers  at  Vincennes, 
when  their  men  [Clark's  force]  their  faces  blackened 
to  hideousness  by  gunpowder,  suddenly  appeared  as  if 
they  had  dropped  from  the  clouds.  It  was  impossible, 
they  thought,  that  these  soldiers  would  [could]  have 
traversed  the  country  a  hundred  miles  from  the  Ohio 
river."  (Benson  J.  Lossing,  in  The  American  Histo 
rical  Record,  Vol.  II.,  p.  62n..)  Clark  blacked  his 
face  (also  a  few  others  did  the  same)  on  the  2ist  of 
February,  with  gunpowder,  at  the  same  time  giving 
the  war  whoop.  It  was  only  a  specimen  of  back 
woods  bravado  to  urge  on  his  men.  The  powder 
quickly  disappeared  from  their  faces. 


714       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE  XCVI. 


VINCENNES. 

Butler,  in  speaking  of  Clark's  letter  to  the  inhab 
itants  of  Vincennes,  says :  "Seldom  has  frank  notice 
been  given  to  an  enemy  and  choice  afforded  to  retire  to 
his  friends ;  it  was  resorted  to  in  hopes  that  its  impos 
ing  character  would  add  to  the  confidence  of  our 
[Clark's]  friends  and  increase  the  dismay  of  our 
[Clark's]  enemies.  So  much  did  it  operate  in  this  way 
that  the  expedition  was  believed  to  be  from  Kentucky ; 
it  was  thought  utterly  impossible  that,  in  the  condition 
of  th.e  waters,  it  could  be  from  the  Illinois.  This  idea 
was  confirmed  by  several  messengers  [sent]  under  the 
assumed  name  of  gentlemen  known  to  have  been  in 
Kentucky,  to  their  acquaintances  in  St.  Vincents  [Vin 
cennes];  nor  would  the  presence  of  Clark  be  credited 
until  his  person  was  pointed  out  by  one  who  knew 
him  (History  of  Kentucky,  p.  83).  This  tradition  (for 
it  is  evidently  only  a  tradition),  it  is  certain  is  wholly 
fictitious. 


NOTE  XCVII.     -. 

CONCERNING  THE   APPLE-TODDY   FICTION. 

A  rediculous  tradition  —  one  that  has  not  a 
shadow  of  foundation  to  build  on  —  has  found  its  way 
into  history,  to  the  effect  that  while  Helm  was  a  pris 
oner  and  playing  at  piquet  with  Hamilton  in  the  fort, 
one  of  Clark's  men  requested  leave  of  his  commander 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST.,  ETC.       715 

to  shoot  at  the  Captain's  headquarters,  so  soon  as  they 
were  discovered,  to  knock  down  the  clay  or  mortar 
into  his  apple-toddy,  which  he  was  sure  that  officer, 
from  his  well-known  fondness  for  that  fine  liquor, 
would  have  on  his  hearth ;  that  the  soldier  got  leave 
to  fire  at  the  place  he  desired ;  and  that  when  Helm 
heard  the  bullets  rattling  about  the  chimney,  he  jumped 
up  and  swore  it  was  Clark,  who  would  make  all  the 
garrison  prisoners,  though  the  rascals  had  no  business 
to  spoil  his  toddy. 

The  first  publication  of  this  fiction  was  in  these 
words : 

"There  is  an  amusing  anecdote  connected  with  the 
siege,  illustrative  of  the  frank  and  fearless  spirit  of 
the  times ;  that  while  Helm  was  a  prisoner  and  playing 
at  piquet  with  Governor  Hamilton  in  the  fort,  one  of 
Clark's  men  requested  leave  of  his  commander  to  shoot 
at  Helm's  quarters,  so  soon  as  they  were  discovered, 
to  knock  down  the  clay  or  the  mortar  into  his  apple- 
toddy,  which  he  was  sure  the  captain  from  his  well- 
known  fondness  for  that  fine  liquor  would  have  on 
his  hearth.  It  is  added  that  when  the  Captain  heard 
the  bullets  rattling  about  the  chimney,  he  jumped  up 
and  swore  it  was  Clark,  and  he  would  make  them  all 
prisoners  though  the  d — d  rascals  had  no  business  to 
spoil  his  toddy."  Louisville  Directory,  p.  97.  It  is 
added  that  when  Helm  made  this  exclamation  about 
Clark,  Governor  Hamilton  asked,  'Is  he  a  merciful 
man?'  It  seems  an  intelligence  was  kept  up  between 
Helm  and  Clark  through  the  medium  of  Henry's  wife, 
who  lived  in  the  town  and  who  had  free  access  to  her 
husband  in  the  fort.  Helm  cautioned  the  British  sol 
diers  against  looking  out  at  the  port  holes,  'for,'  said 


716       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

he,  'Clark's  men  will  shoot  your  eyes  out ;'  it  accord 
ingly  happened  that  one  was  shot  through  the  eye,  in 
attempting  to  look  out,  when  Helm  exclaimed,  'I  told 
you  so/  '  (From  a  letter  of  Edmund  Rogers  cited  by 
Butler  in  his  Kentucky,  p.  8411.) 


NOTE  XCVIII. 

AS  TO  CLARK'S_  SUPPLY  OF  POWDER  ON  REACHING* 
VINCENNES. 

Schieffelin,  in  his  Loose  Notes, Magazine  of  Amer 
ican  History,  vol.  I,  p.  187  —  gives  a  second-hand  re 
port,  which  recites  that  "a  Mr.  Le  Gras,  a  Major  of 
militia,  with  other  inhabitants,  .  .  .  met  the  reb 
els  some  distance  from  the  town,  furnishing  them  with 
ammunition,  provisions,  etc.,  —  the  rebels  having  dam 
aged  all  theirs  by  the  long  route  through  the  floods  of 
water  from  Kaskaskia  to  the  town."  This  erroneous 
report  is  afterwards  made  the  basis  for  a  positive  dec 
laration  by  Hamilton  [in  his  letter  to  Haldimand  of 
July  6,  1781,  (Germain  MSS.)]  that  Colonel  Clark 
was  supplied  by  the  inhabitants  of  Vincennes  with 
powder,  "his  own  to  the  last  ounce,  being  damaged  on 
the  march." 

But  none  of  the  citizens  of  Vincennes  marched  out 
to  meet  Clark;  and  the  detaching  of  Lieutenant  Bay- 
ley,  before  the  Colonel  himself  had  reached  the  town, 
to  fire  on  the  fort,  shows  they  had  powder  fit  for  im 
mediate  use. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       717 


NOTE  XCIX. 

OF  THE  TREATMENT  ACCORDED  CAPT.   FRANCIS   MAISON- 
VILLE. 

In  Schieffelin's  Loose  Notes  —  Magazine  of 
American  History,  vol.  I,  p.  188  —  and  in  Hamilton's 
letter  to  Haldimand  of  July  6,  1781  (Germain  MSS.), 
accounts  are  given  of  the  treatment  meted  out  to  Mai- 
sonville  by  the  "rebels :"  the  former  declaring  he  was 
finally  saved,  after  numberless  solicitations,  by  the  Illi 
nois  volunteers  in  the  "rebel"  service;  while  the  latter 
says  it  was  by  a  "rebel"  brother.  Clark's  only  mention 
of  the  treatment  received  by  Maisonville  is  in  his  Me 
moir —  Dillon's  Indiana,  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  151,  where 
he  gives  this  account:  "A  few  of  his  [Lamothe's] 
party  were  taken,  one  of  which  was  Maisonville,  a 
famous  Indian  partisan.  Two  lads  that  captured  him, 
tied  him  to  a  post  in  the  street,  and  fought  from  be 
hind  him  as  a  breastwork,  —  supposing  that  the  enemy 
would  not  fire  at  them  for  fear  of  killing  him,  as  he 
would  alarm  them  by  his  voice.  The  lads  were  or 
dered  by  an  officer  who  discovered  them  at  their 
amusement,  to  untie  their  prisoner,  and  take  him  off 
to  the  guard,  which  they  did,  but  were  so  inhuman 
as  to  take  part  of  his  scalp  on  the  way.  There  hap 
pened  to  him  no  other  damage."  While  little  confi 
dence  can  be  put  in  this  relation,  still  less  can  be  placed 
in  the  declaration  of  Hamilton  that  the  prisoner  was 
partially  scalped  by  Clark's  order.  Schieffelin  says 
(loc.  cit.)  :  "They  [the  Americans]  had  the  inhu 
manity  to  scalp  him,  after  the  repeated  orders  for  so 
doing  from  Colonel  Clark." 


718       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

NOTE  C. 

WHAT  "BOWMAN'S  JOURNAL"  SAYS  CONCERNING  HAM 
ILTON'S  PROPOSALS  BROUGHT  TO  CLARK  BY  CAPT. 
HELM  FROM  FORT  SACKVILLE. 

The  proposals  as  printed  vary  from  those  in  the 
MS.  copy  of  "Bowman's  Journal.''  The  word  "prom 
ises"  is  given  as  "proposes;"  the  words  "that  he 
wishes"  are,  "that  is,  he  wishes;"  the  words  "further 
proposes"  read  "promises ;"  "remain  a  secret"  have  the 
word  "a"  omitted ;  "finally  concluded"  are  rendered 
"finished ;"  and  "before  the  gate"  are  given  as,  "by  the 
gate."  As  printed  in  Clark's  Memoir  [Dillon's  Indi 
ana  (ed.  of  1859),  P-  J53]  tne  word  "promises"  is 
retained;  but  in  all  the  residue,  the  two  printed  ver 
sions  are  identical.  The  words  which  end  them  ("If 
Colonel  Clark  makes  a  difficulty  of  coming  into  the 
fort,  Lieutenant  Governor  Hamilton  will  speak  to  him 
by  the  gate")  refer  back,  it  will  be  noticed,  to  the  first 
proposals  sent  out  by  Hamilton  and  confirm  the  state 
ment  as  to  Helm's  first  appearance,  made  by  Clark  in 
his  Journal,  under  date  of  Feb.  24,  1779  —  in  the  Hal- 
dimand  MSS.  Besides,  in  the  Journal  last  mentioned, 
the  Colonel,  in  speaking  of  Hamilton's  proposition  for 
a  three  days'  truce  and  cessation  from  offensive  work, 
etc.,  expressly  calls  them  the  "second  proposals"  of  the 
Lieutenant  Governor. 

The  proposals  in  "Bowman's  Journal"  in  the  De 
partment  of  State  MSS.  are  dated  ("24th  Feby, 
1779"),  but  Hamilton's  name  is  not  signed  to  them; 
in  Clark's  Journal  they  are  also  dated,  but  are  signed 
"H.  H."  In  "Bowman's  Journal"  as  printed  and  in 
Clark's  Memoir,  both  the  date  and  name  are  appended. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       719 


NOTE  CI. 

AMERICAN  AND  BRITISH   ACCOUNTS  AS  TO  THE  FATE  OF 

A   WAR  PARTY  ON  ITS  RETURN   FROM   THE  FALLS  OF 

THE  OHIO  TO  VINCENNES. 

( i . )     A  nierican  A ccounts. 

"This  moment  received  intelligence  that  a  party 
of  Indians  were  coming  up  from  the  Falls  [of  the 
Ohio]  with  prisoners  or  scalps,  which  party  was  sent 
out  by  Governor  Hamilton  for  that  purpose  [i.  e.,  to 
take  prisoners  or  scalps].  My  people  [meaning  his  sol 
diers]  were  so  enraged  that  they  immediately  inter 
cepted  the  party,  which  consisted  of  eight  Indians  and 
a  Frenchman  of  the  garrison.  They  killed  three  on 
the  spot  and  brought  four  in  who  were  tomahawked 
in  the  street  opposite  the  fort  gate  and  thrown  into  the 
river.  The  Frenchman  we  showed  mercy,  as  his 
aged  father  had  behaved  so  well  in  my  party.  I  re 
lieved  the  two  poor  prisoners,  who  were  French  hunt 
ers  on  the  Ohio."  (Clark's  Journal  —  entry  of  the 
24th  Feb.,  1779 — Haldimand  MSS.) 

"Bowman's  Journal"  gives  this  relation  of  the  mat 
ter: 

.  .  .  A  party  of  Indians  [came]  down  the 
hills  behind  the  town,  who  had  been  sent  by  Gov. 
Hamilton  to  get  some  scalps  and  prisoners  from  the 
Falls  of  Ohio.  Our  men  having  got  news  of  it,  pur 
sued  them,  killed  two  on  the  spot,  wounded  three,  took 
six  prisoners  [and]  brought  them  into  town.  Two  of 
them  proving  to  be  white  men  that  they  had  taken 
prisoners,  we  released  them,  and  brought  the  Indians 
to  the  main  street  before  the  fort  gate,  there  toma- 


720       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

hawked  them  and  threw  them  into  the  river."  [De 
partment  of  the  State  MSS.  The  Journal  as  printed 
(Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  107)  has  substan 
tially  the  same  account. 

Clark  to  Governor  Henry  of  April  29th,  has  the 
following:  "In  the  height  of  this  action,  an  Indian 
party  that  had  been  to  war  and  taken  two  prisoners, 
came  in,  not  knowing  of  us.  Hearing  of  them,  I  dis 
patched  a  party  to  give  them  battle  in  the  commons, 
and  got  nine  of  them,  with  .  .  .  two  prisoners, 
who  proved  to  be  Frenchmen."  (Jefferson's  Works, 
Vol.  L,  p.  222n.) 

Clark's  account  of  the  affair  in  his  letter  to  Mason 
contains  additional  particulars  :  "Some  time  before,  a 
party  of  warriors  sent  by  Mr.  Hamilton  against  Ken 
tucky,  had  taken  two  prisoners..  [This  party]  was  dis 
covered  by  the  Kickapoos,  who  gave  information  of 
them.  A  party  was  immediately  detached  to  meet 
them,  which  happened  in  the  commons.  They  con 
ceived  our  troops  to  be  a  force  sent  by  Mr.  Hamilton 
to  conduct  them  in,  an  honor  commonly  paid  them.  I 
was  highly  pleased  to  see  each  party  whooping,  halloo 
ing  and  striking  their  breasts,  as  they  approached  in 
the  open  fields.  Each  seemed  to  try  to  outdo  the  other 
in  the  greatest  signs  of  joy.  The  poor  devils  never 
discovered  their  mistake  until  it  was  too  late  for  many 
of  them  to  escape.  Six  of  them  were  made  prisoners, 
two  of  them  scalped,  and  the  rest  so  wounded  as  we 
afterwards  learned  that  but  one  lived.  I  had  now  as 
fair  opportunity  of  making  an  impression  on  the  In 
dians  as  I  could  have  wished  for,  —  that  of  convinc 
ing  them  that  Governor  Hamilton  could  not  give  them 
that  protection  he  had  made  them  to  believe  he  could, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       721 

and  in  some  measure  to  incense  them  against  him  for 
not  exerting  himself  to  save  their  friends :  I  ordered 
the  prisoners  to  be  tomahawked  in  face  of  the  garri 
son.  It  had  the  effect  that  I  expected.  Instead  of  it 
making  their  friends  inveterate  against  us,  they  up 
braided  the  English  parties  in  not  trying  to  save  them ; 
and  they  gave  them  to  understand  that  they  believed 
them  to  be  liars  and  no  warriors. 

"A  remarkable  circumstance  happened  that  I  think 
worthy  our  notice :  An  old  French  gent  of  the  name  of 
St.  Croix,  lieutenant  of  Capt.  McCarty's  volunteers 
from  Cahokia,  had  but  one  son,  who  headed  these  In 
dians  and  was  made  prisoner.  The  question  was  put 
whether  the  white  man  should  be  saved.  I  ordered 
them  [Clark's  men]  to  put  him  to  death  through  indig 
nation  which  did  not  extend  to  the  savages.  For  fear 
he  would  make  his  escape,  his  father  drew  his  sword 
and  stood  by  him  in  order  to  run  him  through  in  case 
he  should  stir;  being  painted  he  could  not  know  him. 
The  wretch,  on  seeing  the  executioner's  tomahawk 
raised  to  give  the  fatal  stroke,  raised  his  eyes  as  if 
making  his  last  address  to  Heaven  [and]  cried, — 'O, 
save  me.'  The  father  knew  his  son's  voice  [and]  you 
may  easily  guess  of  the  agitation  and  behavior  of  these 
two  persons,  coming  to  the  knowledge  of  each  other  at 
so  critical  a  moment.  I  had  a  little  mercy  for  such 
murderers,  and  so  valuable  an  opportunity  for  an  ex 
ample,  knowing  that  there  would  be  the  greatest  solic 
itations  made  to  save  him,  that  I  immediately  ab 
sconded  myself ;  but  by  the  warmest  solicitations  from 
his  father  who  had  behaved  so  exceedingly  well  in  our 
service,  and  [from]  some  of  the  officers,  I  granted  his 

46 


722       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

life  on  certain  conditions."      (Clark's  Campaign  in  the 
Illinois,  pp.  73,  74. 

(2.)     British  Accounts. 

Isidore  Chesne,  in  his  Account,  says  that  he  first 
heard  that  seven  Indians  (they  were  Ottawas)  had 
been  killed.  Afterward,  he  was  told  that  only  five 
were  shot  down.  He  then  adds  : 

"The  Indians  who  were  killed  had  just  returned 
from  war,  —  had  made  two  prisoners  at  the  fort  at  the 
Falls  of  the  Ohio,  and  not  knowing  the  enemy  [Ameri 
cans]  were  in  the  village  [Vincennes],  were  there  sur 
prised  and  killed."  (From  the  Haldimand  MSS.) 

Schieffelin  (Loose  Notes.  Magazine  of  American 
History,  Vol.  I,  pp.  191,  192)  gives,  from  the  British 
side,  this  rueful  picture : 

"At  the  time  our  flag  was  sent  out  from  Fort  Sackville, 
an  Indian  party  who  had  been  on  a  scout  returned  —  the 
rebels  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  ran  to  meet  them. 
The  Indians  not  being  apprized  of  the  town  having  joined 
the  rebels,  imagined  they  came  to  salute  them,  when,  to  their 
great  misfortune,  after  they  had  discharged  their  pieces  in  the 
air,  as  a  salute  to  them,  were  fired  at  by  the  rebels  and  cit 
izens,  several  killed  on  the  domaine  in  sight  of  our  fort, 
others  [were]  brought  in  [and]  kicked  by  them ;  [then]  they 
marched  through  the  streets  [having  their  prisoners  with 
them,  including]  two  Indian  partizans  —  Frenchmen  in 
His  Majesty's  service.  [All]  were  [then]  seated  [that 
is,  all  the  captured]  in  a  circle  when  Colonel  Clark,  the  com 
mandant  of  the  rebels,  took  a  tomahawk  and  in  cool  blood 
knocked  their  [the  Indians']  brains  out,  dipping  his  hands 
in  their  blood,  [then]  rubbing  it  [them]  several  times  on  his 
cheeks,  yelping  as  a  savage.  The  two  Frenchmen,  who  were 
to  share  the  same  unhappy  fate,  were  sergeants  in  the  Detroit 
volunteers,  and  were  saved  from  this  bloody  massacre,  one 
by  his  father,  who  was  an  officer  with  the  rebels,  [who]  did 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       723 

not  know  his  son  until  they  informed  [him]  that  he  was  in 
the  circle  in  Indian  dress  and  [that  he  was]  to  undergo  this 
cruelty  exercised  by  the  Americans;  the  other  was  taken  by 
force  by  his  sister,  whose  husband  was  a  merchant  in  the  town. 
This  is  also  a  treatment  unprecedented  even  between  savages, 
—  to  commit  hostilities  at  the  time  a  flag  is  sent  them. 

"The  dead  carcasses  of  these  unhappy  fellows  were 
dragged  to  the  river  by  the  soldiery,  some  who  had  been 
struggling  for  life  after  1  /ng  thrown  into  the  river.  An  In 
dian  chief  of  the  name  of  Muckeydemengo,  of  the  Ottawa 
nation,  after  Colonel  Clark  had  struck  the  hatchet  into  his 
head,  with  his  own  hands  drew  his  tomahawk  [out]  present 
ing  it  again  to  the  inhuman  butcher,  who  repeated  the  stroke. 
After  the  Governor  and  his  officers  were  put  on  parole  in  the 
town,  they  had  seen  the  blood  on  the  ground  of  these  unhappy 
men,  for  a  considerable  time.  The  dead  bodies  who  [which] 
were  on  the  domaine  of  those  they  fired  at,  were  stripped 
naked  and  left  for  the  wild  prey."  (A  Reprint  from  the  Royal 
Gazette.) 

"Before  anything  was  concluded  [as  to  the  sur 
render  of  Fort  Sackville],"  afterwards  wrote  Hamil 
ton  to  Haldimand,  "the  following  scene  was  exhibited, 
of  which  I  give  your  Excellency  a  relation,  as  it  serves 
to  contrast  the  behavior  of  His  Majesty's  subjects  with 
that  of  the  rebels  so  often  celebrated  for  humanity, 
generosity,  and,  indeed,  every  thing  virtuous  and  no 
ble : 

"About  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  [of  the  twen 
ty-fourth]  a  party  of  Indians  with  some  whites  re 
turned  from  a  scout,  with  two  Canadians  whom  they 
had  taken  prisoners  near  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio,  prob 
ably  with  information  for  the  rebels  at  the  fort  [there]. 
Colonel  Clark  sent  off  a  detachment  of  seventy  men 
against  them.  The  Indians  numbered  fifteen  or  six 
teen  men,  who,  seeing  the  English  flag  flying  at  the 
fort,  discharged  their  pieces  —  an  usual  compliment 


724      HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

with  those  people.  They  were  immediately  fired  upon 
by  the  rebels  and  Canadians,  two  killed  on  the  spot, 
one  shot  in  the  belly,  who,  however,  escaped.  The 
rest  were  surrounded  and  taken,  bound,  to  the  village, 
where,  being  set  in  the  street  opposite  the  fort  gate 
they,  were  put  to  death,  notwithstanding  a  truce  at 
that  moment  existed. 

"The  manner  as  related  to  me  by  different  people 
and  among  others  by  the  man  at  whose  door  this  ex 
ecrable  feat  was  perpetrated,  was,  was  as  follows : 

"One  of  them  was  tomahawked  immediately.  The 
rest,  setting  on  the  ground  in  a  ring  bound,  seeing,  by 
the  fate  of  their  comrade,  what  they  had  to  expect,  the 
next  on  his  left  sang  his  death-song,  and  was  in  turn 
tomahawked.  The  others  underwent  the  same  fate. 
Only  one  was  saved,  and  he  at  the  intercession  of  a 
rebel  officer,  who  pleaded  for  him,  telling  Colonel 
Clark  that  the  savage's  father  had  formerly  spared  his 
fife." 

"The  chief  of  this  party,"  continues  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor,  "after  having  the  hatchet  stuck  in  his  head, 
took  it  out  himself  and  delivered  it  to  the  inhuman 
monster  who  struck  him  first,  who  repeated  his  stroke 
a  second  and  a  third  time ;  after  which,  the  miserable 
savage  was  dragged  by  the  rope  about  his  neck  to  the 
river,  thrown  in,  and  suffered  to  spend  still  a  few  mo 
ments  of  life  in  fruitless  struggling."  (Hamilton  to 
Haldimand,  July  6,  1781.  —  Germain  MSS.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      725 


NOTE  CII. 

CONCERNING    THE    SECOND    MEETING    OF    CLARK    WITH 
HAMILTON. 

It  is  clear  that  when  Hamilton  "went  to  meet  them 
with  Major  Hay,"  he  went  from  the  fort,  to  which  he 
had  returned.  This  then  was  the  second  meeting,  and 
was  evidently  held  at  the  church  where  the  first  one 
was  held.  Hamilton,  however,  in  his  letter  to  Haldi- 
mand  of  July  6,  1781,  erroneously  says  the  first  meet 
ing  was  at  the  place  he  lastly  proposed.  These  are  his 
words : 

"Colonel  Clark,  yet  reeking  with  the  blood  of  those 
unhappy  victims  [the  Indians  tomahawked  in  view  of 
the  British  garrison  and  then  thrown  into  the  river], 
came  to  the  esplanade  before  the  fort  gate  where  I  had 
agreed  to  meet  him  and  treat  of  the  surrender  of  the 
garrison." 

He  spoke  with  rapture,  of  his  late  achievement, 
while  he  washed  the  blood  from  his  hands,  stained  in 
this  inhuman  sacrifice."  [The  italicising  is  mine.] 


NOTE  CIII. 

FINAL    ARTICLES    OF    CAPITULATION    AGREED    UPON. 

The  wording  of  the  articles  of  Capitulation,  as 
given  by  Clark  in  his  Journal,  is  as  follows : 

"ist.  L't.  Gov'r.  Hamilton  engages  to  deliver  up 
to  Col.  Clark  Fort  Sackville  as  it  is  at  present,  with 
all  the  stores,  ammunition,  provisions,  etc.,  etc. 


726       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"2d.  The  garrison  will  deliver  themselves  up  pris 
oners  of  war  to  march  out  with  their  arms,  accoutre 
ments,  knapsacks,  etc. 

"3d.  The  garrison  to  be  delivered  up  to-morrow 
morning  at  10  o'clock. 

"4th.  Three  days  to  be  allowed  to  the  garrison  to 
settle  their  accounts  with  the  traders  of  this  place  and 
inhabitants. 

"5th.  The  officers  of  the  garrison  to  be  allowed 
their  necessary  baggage,  etc. 

"G.  R.  CLARK. 

"Post  Vincent,  24th  Feb'y.,.  1779." 

Hamilton,  in  his  letter  to  Haldimand  of  July  6, 
1781,  says  the  Articles  he  agreed  to  were  his  own, 
which  had  been  changed  by  Clark.  This  is  true  as 
will  be  seen  by  comparing  them.  The  Lieutenant- 
Governor  also  gives  the  Articles  in  full.  He  must, 
therefore,  have  copied  them  before  sending  them  back ; 
but,  in  so  doing,  he  made  some  unimportant  variations. 
Walker  (The  North-west  during  the  Revolution,  p. 
22)  says  that  "the  unique  correspondence  between  the 
comparatively  illiterate  backwoodsman  [Clark]  and 
the  proud  British  officer  [Hamilton]  .  .  .  is  in  the 
possession  of  Mr.  [Lyman  C]  Draper  [of  Madison, 
Wisconsin]."  This  is  published  with  the  approval  of 
the  latter ;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  never  had  in  his 
possession  all  of  this  correspondence.  Draper  was  not 
the  possessor  of  what  was  actually  sent  to  Hamilton 
inside  the  fort  by  Clark  —  only  copies  of  it  in  the 
hand-writing  of  the  latter,  except  the  Articles  of  Ca 
pitulation  finally  agreed  upon. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       727 


NOTE  CIV. 

SOME  OF  HAMILTON'S  REASONS  FOR  SURRENDERING  FORT 
SACKVILLE. 

In  his  letter  to  Haldimand  of  July  6,  1781,  Hamil 
ton  says :  "Half  our  number  [the  Canadian  volun 
teers]  had  shown  their  poltroonerie  and  treason;  and 
our  wounded  must  be  left  at  the  mercy  of  a  merciless 
set  of  bandits."  But  it  is  certain  not  one  of  his  Cana 
dian  allies  had  committed  any  act  of  treason ; —  they,  as 
the  Lieutenant-Governor  expressly  declares,  only  said : 
"It  was  very  hard  to  be  obliged  to  fight  against  their 
countrymen  and  relatives,  who  they  now  perceived  had 
joined  the  Americans." 

Two  years  afterward  (that  is,  in  1783),  Hamilton, 
forgetting  what  lie  had  written  to  Haldimand,  de 
clares  : 

"In  the  month  of  February  .  .  they  [the  peo 
ple  of  Vincennes]  joined  the  Americans  and  fired  on 
the  fort.  The  Canadian  volunteers,,  who  made  half  of 
my  little  garrison,  deserted,  and  we  were  reduced  to 
the  horrid  necessity  of  capitulation."  (Hamilton  to 
Corns  of  His  Majesty's  Treasury,  1783,  MSS.)  This 
was  certainly  a  falsification ;  not  a  single  Canadian  de 
serted. 

Schieffelin,  in  his  Loose  Notes,  dismisses  the  sub 
ject  with  a  few  words :  "No  way  was  left  us  to  get 
off  —  the  provisions  exhausted;  —  these  [this]  obliged 
us  to  agree  to  a  capitulation  and  surrender  to  a  set  of 
uncivilized  Virginian  woodmen,  armed  with  rifles." 


728       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE  CV. 

AS    TO    THE    ACCIDENTAL     BLOWING    UP    OF    THE    CART 
RIDGES   IN    FORT    SACKVILLE. 

[Ante.  Chap.  XIX.,  p.  332.] 

Schieffelin  mentions  the  casualty  (in  his  Loose 
Notes)  thus:  "The  Rebel  Major  with  some  Captains, 
showing  their  dexterity  in  firing  cannon  as  a  salute  for 
the  day,  were  blown  up  by  the  explosion  of  a  keg  of 
cannon  cartridges." 

Says  Butler  (History  of  Kentucky,  pp.  86,  87)  : 
''This  capitulation  on  the  24th  of  February,  1779,  sur 
rendered  Fort  Sackville  to  the  Americans ;  the  garri 
son  was  to  be  considered  as  prisoners  of  war.  On  the 
25th,  it  was  taken  possession  of  by  Colonel  Clark  at 
the  head  of  the  companies  of  Captains  Williams  and 
Witherington,  while  Captains  Bowman  and  McCarty 
received  the  prisoners ;  the  stars  and  stripes  were  again 
hoisted,  and  thirteen  cannon  fired  to  celebrate  the  re 
covery  of  this  most  important  stronghold  upon  the  In 
dian  frontier."  Evidently  Butler  did  not  know  that 
the  accident  cut  short  the  salute. 

Capt.  Worthington's  name  is  spelled  "Withering- 
ton"  by  Butler,  as  will  be  noticed  by  the  above  extract, 
and  in  one  place  in  "Bowman's  Journal"  (Department 
of  State  MSS.),  it  appears  as  "Wertherington ;"  how 
ever,  it  is  afterward  given  there  as  "Worthington"  and 
is  so  spelled  in  the  printed  Journal  (Clark's  Campaign 
in  the  Illinois,  p.  108).  See  also  the  work  last  cited 
p.  65  ;  and  Clark  to  the  Gov.  of  Virginia  —  Calendar  of 
Virginia  State  Papers,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  315,  316.  Besides, 
Clark's  Journal  has  "Worthington" :  and  it  has  al- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      729 

ready  been  explained  that  the  Captain  was  from  Ken 
tucky  ;  —  there  he  was  known  as  "Worthington." 


NOTE  CVI. 

CONCERNING   THE  ATTACK  ON   FORT  SACKVILLE  AND  ITS 
SURRENDER. 

"On  viewing  the  strength  of  the  fort  [after  the  ca 
pitulation]  Colonel  Clark  was  astonished  at  its  easy 
surrender;  but  on  reflection  was  convinced  that  it 
could  have  been  undermined,  as  the  fort  was  within 
thirty  feet  of  the  river  bank.  If  even  that  attempt  had 
failed  his  information  was  so  exact  that  on  the  arrival 
of  his  artillery,  the  first  hot  shot  could  have  blown  up 
the  magazine."  (Butler,  in  his  History  of  Kentucky, 
p.  87.)  But  this  is  all  speculation  on  part  of  the  Ken 
tucky  historian. 

As  to  there  being  only  seventy-nine  prisoners  taken 
when  the  fort  surrendered,  it  may  be  said  it  is  highly 
probable  that  when  Lieut.  Bayley  began  firing  on  the 
fortification  a  few  of  the  garrison  were  outside  among 
the  Vincennes  people.  It  has  already  been  shown 
how  Maisonville  and  his  companion  also  St.  Croix 
and  another  were  captured;  and  it  is  possible  there 
were  still  out  one  or  two  war-parties  headed  by  white 
men.  In  Hamilton's  Return  of  January  30,  he  enum 
erates,  in  all,  ninety-five  white  men  as  constituting  his 
force.  This  leaves  sixteen  to  be  accounted  for  that 
were  not  in  the  fort  when  it  surrendered;  but,  from 
what  has  just  been  said,  it  is  not  difficult  to  make  up 


730       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

the  number  missing.     One  of  those  who  escaped  was 
Captain  Chesne,  as  already  noted. 

Of  the  many  fictions  concerning  the  success  of 
Clark  at  Vincennes  which  have  been  printed,  the  fol 
lowing  is  among  the  most  prominent : 

"I  have  myself  been  informed  by  some  of  the  'ancient 
inhabitants'  of  the  Post  [Vincennes]  long  since  gathered  to 
their  fathers,  but  who  were  old  enough  at  the  time  of  Clark's 
capture  of  the  Post,  to  recollect  the  circumstances  attending 
it,  that  after  the  surrender,  the  English  flag  was  kept  flying, 
and  that  from  the  large  stores  of  clothing  on  hand,  Clark 
dressed  some  of  his  men  in  red,  the  uniform  of  the  British 
soldiers,  and  placing  a  sentry  with  British  uniform  at  the  gate 
of  the  fort,  after  directing  the  French  inhabitants  to  give  no 
information  of  the  surrender,  awaited  the  arrival  of  the  In 
dians,  who  were  on  one  of  their  murderous  forays  to  the 
south  side  of  the  Ohio,  and  were  to  return  to  Vincennes  to 
join  Hamilton  in  his  meditated  campaign  in  the  Illinois,  for 
the  purpose  of  attacking  Clark  and  his  troops  at  Kaskaskia. 
Sullen  and  silent,  with  the  scalp-lock  of  his  victims  hanging 
at  his  girdle,  and  in  full  expectation  of  his  reward  from 
Hamilton,  the  unwary  savage,  unconscious  of  danger,  and 
wholly  ignorant  of  the  change  that  had  been  effected  in  his 
absence,  passed  the  supposed  British  sentry  at  the  gate  of  the 
fort,  without  inquiry  or  molestation.  But  the  moment  he  had 
entered  a  volley  from  the  rifles  of  a  platoon  of  Clark's  men, 
drawn  up  and  awaiting  his  coming,  pierced  their  hearts,  and 
sent  the  unconscious  -savage  reeking  with  murder,  to  that  tri 
bunal  to  which  he  had  so  frequently,  by  order  of  Hamilton, 
sent  his  American  captives,  from  the  infant  in  the  cradle  to 
the  grandfather  of  the  family,  tottering  with  age  and  infirmity. 
It  ivas  a  just  retribution,  and  few  men  but  Clark  would  have 
planned  the  ruie,  or  carried  it  out  so  successfully.  It  is  re 
ported  that  upwards  of  fifty  Indians  met  this  fate  within  the 
walls  of  Tort  Sackville'  after  its  surrender  by  Hamilton." 
(Law:  The  Colonial  History  of  Vincennes,  pp.  68,  69.) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       731 

When,  after  the  lapse  of  years,  Clark  attempts  to 
describe  all  the  circumstances  attending  the  capitula 
tion,  from  the  moment  of  the  first  meeting  between 
himself  and  Hamilton  to  the  time  of  the  final  surren 
der,  he  confuses  his  relation  in  various  ways.  "We 
met  at  the  church,''  he  says,  "about  eighty  yards  from 
the  fort  —  Lieutenant-Governor  Hamilton,  Major  Hay 
(Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs)  Captain  Helm 
(their  prisoner),  Major  Bowman  and  myself.  The 
conference  began."  But  it  had  commenced  before 
that  —  when  only  Helm  was  present  beside  the  two 
commanders.  Clark  then  says:  "Hamilton  produced 
terms  of  capitulation  signed,  that  contained  various  ar 
ticles,  one  of  which  was  that  the  garrison  should  be 
surrendered  on  their  being  permitted  to  go  to  Pensa- 
cola  on  parole."  But  this  was  the  last  meeting;  and 
the  article  mentioned  does  not  specify  they  were  to  be 
allowed  to  go  to  Pensacola,  although  that  place  un 
doubtedly  was  understood  to  be  the  objective  point. 
The  narration  continues :  "After  deliberating  on 
every  article,  I  rejected  the  whole.  He  [Hamilton] 
then  wished  that  I  would  make  some  proposition.  I 
told  him  I  had  no  other  to  make  than  what  I  had  al 
ready  made  —  that  of  his  surrendering  as  prisoners 
at  discretion.  I  said  that  his  troops  had  behaved  with 
spirit ;  that  they  could  not  suppose  that  they  would  be 
worse  treated  in  consequence  of  it ;  that  if  he  chose  to 
comply  with  the  demand,  though  hard,  perhaps  the 
sooner  the  better ;  that  it  was  in  vain  to  make  any 
proposition  to  me ;  that  he  by  this  time  must  be  sensi 
ble  that  the  garrison  would  fall  that  both  of  us  must 
[view]  all  blood  spilt  for  the  future,  by  the  garrison, 
as  murder ;  that  my  troops  were  already  impatient  and 


732       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

called  aloud  for  permission  to  tear  down  and  storm 
the  fort :  if  such  a  step  was  taken  many,  of  course, 
would  be  cut  down,  and  the  result  of  an  enraged  body 
of  woodsmen  breaking  in  must  be  obvious  to  him :  it 
would  be  out  of  the  power  of  an  American  officer  to 
save  a  single  man."  That  much  of  this  is  a  draft  on 
the  imagination  of  the  relater,  is  self-evident. 

"Various  altercations  took  place,"  are  the  further 
words  of  Clark,  "for  a  considerable  time.  Captain 
Helm  attempted  to  moderate  our  fixed  determination. 
I  told  him  he  was  a  British  prisoner,  and  it  was  doubt 
ful  whether  or  not  he  could  with  propriety  speak  on 
the  subject.  Hamilton  then  said  that  Captain  Helm 
was  from  that  moment  liberated  and  might  use  his 
pleasure.  I  informed  the  Captain  that  I  would  not 
receive  him  on  such  terms ;  that  he  must  return  to  the 
garrison  and  await  his  fate.  I  then  told  Lieutenant- 
Governor  Hamilton  that  hostilities  should  not  com 
mence  until  five  minutes  after  the  drums  gave  the 
alarm." 

"We  took  our  leave,"  Clark  continues,  "and  parted 
but  a  few  steps  when  Hamilton  stopped  and  politely 
asked  me  if  I  would  be  so  kind  as  to  give  him  my  rea 
sons  for  refusing  the  garrison  on  any  other  terms  than 
those  I  had  offered.  I  told  him  I  had  no  objections 
in  giving  him  my  real  reasons,  which  were  simply 
these :  that  I  knew  the  greater  part  of  the  principal 
Indian  partisans  of  Detroit  were  with  him ;  that  I 
wanted  an  excuse  to  put  them  to  death  or  otherwise 
treat  them  as  I  thought  proper ;  that  the  cries  of  the 
widows  and  fatherless  on  the  frontiers,  which  they  had 
occasioned,  now  required  their  blood  from  my  hands; 
and  that  I  did  not  choose  to  be  so  timorous  as  to  dis- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      733 

obey  the  absolute  commands  of  their  authority  which  I 
looked  upon  to  be  next  to  divine :  that  I  would  rather 
lose  fifty  men  than  not  to  empower  myself  to  execute 
this  piece  of  business  with  propriety :  that  if  he  chose 
to  risk  the  massacre  of  his  garrison  for  their  sakes  it 
was  his  own  pleasure :  and  that  I  might,  perhaps,  take 
it  into  my  head  to  send  for  some  of  those  widows  to 
see  it  executed."  But  it  is  plain,  when  this  is  com 
pared  with  what  the  Colonel  noted  down  at  the  time 
the  conversation  took  place,  that  quite  all  of  it  has  no 
foundation  in  fact.  What  he  adds  is  of  the  same  char 
acter  : 

"Major  Hay,  paying  great  attention,  I  had  ob 
served  a  kind,  of  distrust  in  his  countenance  which  in  a 
great  measure  influenced  my  conversation  during  this 
time.  On  my  concluding,  —  Tray,  Sir,'  said  he,  'who 
is  it  that  you  call  Indian  partisans?'  'Sir,'  I  replied, 
4 1  take  Major  Hay  to  be  one  of  the  principal.'  I 
never  saw  a  man  in  the  moment  of  execution  so  struck 
as  he  appeared  to  be  —  pale  and  trembling,  scarcely 
able  to  stand.  Hamilton  blushed,  and  I  observed  was 
much  affected  at  his  behavior.  Major  Bowman's 
countenance  sufficiently  explained  his  disdain  for  the 
one  and  his  sorrow  for  the  other.  .  .  Some  mo 
ments  elapsed  without  a  word  passing  on  either  side. 
From  that  moment  my  resolutions  changed  respecting 
Hamilton's  situation.  I  told  him  that  we  would  re 
turn  to  our  respective  posts ;  that  I  would  reconsider 
the  matter  and  let  him  know  the  result ;  no  offensive 
measures  should  be  taken  in  the  meantime.  Agreed 
to,  and  we  parted.  What  had  passed  being  made 
known  to  our  officers,  it  was  agreed  that  we  should 


734      HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

moderate   our   resolutions."     [Clark's   Memoir  —  Dil 
lon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  PP-  1S4~15^-] 

"The  British  commander,"  says  a  recent  writer, 
"has  left  on  record  his  bitter  mortification  at  having  to 
yield  the  fort  [Sackville]  'to  a  set  of  uncivilized  Vir 
ginia  woodsmen  armed  with  rifles.'  In  truth,  it  was  a 
most  notable  achievement.  Clark  had  taken,  without 
artillery,  a  heavy  stockade,  protected  by  cannon  and 
swivels,  and  garrisoned  by  trained  soldiers.  His  su 
periority  in  numbers  was  very  far  from  being  in  itself 
sufficient  to  bring  about  the  result,  as  witness  the  al 
most  invariable  success  with  which  the  similar  but 
smaller  Kentucky  forts,  unprovided  with  artillery  and 
held  by  fewer  men,  were  defended  against  much 
larger  forces  than  Clark's.  Much  credit  belongs  to 
Clark's  men,  but  most  belongs  to  their  leader.  The 
boldness  of  his  plan  and  the  resolute  skill  with  which 
he  followed  it  out,  his  perseverance  through  the  in 
tense  hardships  of  the  midwinter  march,  the  address 
with  which  he  kept  the  French  and  Indians  neutral, 
and  the  masterful  way  in  which  he  controlled  his  own 
troops,  together  with  the  ability  and  courage  he  dis 
played  in  the  actual  attack,  combined  to  make  his  feat 
the  most  memorable  of  all  the  deeds  done  west  of  the 
Alleghanies  in  the  Revolutionary  war."  But  the 
achievement  greatly  redounds  to  the  credit  of  Clark  and 
his  men  without  crediting  to  their  side  (Roosevelt; 
The  Winning  of  the  West,  Vol.  II.,  pp.  84,  85.)  what 
is  not  in  reality  due  them.  Very  little  protection  did 
the  cannon  and  swivels  give  Hamilton  and  his  men. 
Clark's  superiority  in  numbers  certainly  aided  in 
bringing  about  the  surrender  —  as  much  (if  not  more) 
because  of  the  superiority  alone  as  by  the  effect  pro- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      735 

cluced  by  the  shots  of  so  many  assailants.  The  men 
tion  made  of  "the  almost  invariable  success  with  which 
the  similar  but  smaller  Kentucky  forts,  unprovided 
with  artillery  and  held  by  fewer  men,  were  defended 
against  much  larger  forces  than  Clark's"  is  not  rele 
vant  to  the  attack  under  consideration.  The  Ken 
tucky  forts  were,  to  a  large  extent,  unlike  Fort  Sack- 
ville  —  being,  in  fact,  much  weaker;  but,  when  as 
sailed,  the  besiegers  were,  in  all  cases  where  artillery 
was  not  employed,  almost  entirely  savages.  As  to  the 
neutrality  of  the  French  and  Indians  in  Vincennes 
during  the  siege  —  there  was  none  in  reality ;  all  were 
on  the  side  of  the  Americans  in  their  feelings ;  and  if 
but  few  were  active  against  Hamilton,  it  was  not  for 
want  of  interest  on  their  part  in  the  Colonel  and  his  sol 
diers,  but  because  of  the  refusal  of  the  American  com 
mander  to  allow  them  to  come  to  his  assistance. 

The  writer  just  cited  adds:  "It  [the  capture  of 
Hamilton  and  his  fort]  was  likewise  the  most  important 
in  its  results,  for  had  he  [Clark]  been  defeated  we  would 
not  only  have  lost  the  Illinois,  but  in  all  probability 
Kentucky  also."  Seemingly,  this  would  have  been  the 
case ;  but,  as  to  war  movements,  little  weight  is  to  be 
given  to  assertions  as  to  what  would  have  taken  place 
had  certain  events  happened.  Such  slight  causes 
sometimes  in  military  affairs  produce  such  unexpected 
results,  that  conjecture  seems  but  a  waste  of  words. 


736       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE  CVII. 

CAPT.  HELM'S  CAPTURE  OF  ST.  MARTIN'S  CONVOY 
AT  WEA. 

Clark,  in  his  letter  to  Gov.  Henry,  of  April  29, 
1777,  says :  ''Hearing  of  a  convoy  of  goods  from  De 
troit,  I  sent  a  party  of  sixty  men,  in  armed  boats,  well 
mounted  with  swivels,  to  meet  them  before  they  could 
receive  any  intelligence"  (Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I, 
p.  224n).  The  Colonel  evidently  includes  officers  and 
men,  and,  speaking  from  recollection,  makes  his  state 
ment  in  round  numbers.  So,  also,  in  Dillon's  Indiana 
(ed.  of  1859),  p.  157,  it  is  said:  "On  the  day  after  the 
surrender  of  the  British  garrison  at  Post  Vincennes, 
Colonel  Clark  sent  a  detachment  of  sixty  men  up  the 
river  Wabash  to  intercept  some  boats  which  were 
laden  with  provisions  and  goods  from  Detroit.  The 
detachment  under  the  command  of  Captain  Helm, 
Major  [Captain]  Bosseron  and  Major  Legras,  pro 
ceeded  up  the  river  in  three  armed  boats." 

"The  day  before  Captain  Helm  (an  American 
officer  who  commanded  the  party  sent  to  take  the  con 
voy)  arrived  at  Ouiatanon  [Wea],  Mr.  Dejean  heard 
that  we  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  rebels." 
(Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781 — Germain 
MSS.)  The  inference  then  is,  that  the  American 
officer  ascended  the  Wabash  as  far  as  Wea;  and  the 
words  of  the  Lieutenant  Governor  make  it  probable 
that  it  was  there  the  Captain  met  the  convoy.  Clark, 
in  his  letter  to  the  Virginia  Governor  of  April  29, 
1779,  (Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222n),  says  the 
distance  above  Vincennes  was  forty  leagues  —  one 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       737 


hundred  and  twenty  miles.  But  Jefferson  to  Lernoult, 
July  22,  1779  (Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers, 
vol.  I,  p.  321),  puts  the  distance  at  150  miles,  and  this 
agrees  very  nearly  with  the  estimated  distance,  from 
Vincennes  to  Wea,  made  in  Bouquet's  Expedition, 
(Cincinnati  Re-print:  1868)  p.  144,  of  60  French 
leagues,  or  144  English  miles.  As  it  appears  certain 
that  Capt.  Helm  went  as  far  up  the  Wabash  as  Wea, 
and  as  the  latter  place  was  above  the  mouth  of  the 
Vermillion,  a  tradition  that  it  was  at  that  river  where 
the  convoy  was  captured  (which  tradition  has  been 
published)  must  fall  to  the  ground.* 

In  his  letter  to  Mason,  Clark's  Campaign  in  the 
Illinois,  p.  75  —  the  Colonel  says  :  "Captain  Helm,  with 
a  party  in  armed  boats  .  .  made  prisoners  of  fifty, 
among  whom  was  Dejean,  Grand  Judge  of  Detroit, 
with  a  large  packet  .  .  .  and  seven  boat  loads  of 
provisions ;  Indian  goods,  etc." 

"Bowman's  Journal"  (in  the  Department  of  State 
MSS.)  for  March  5th,  says:  "About  10  o'clock  Cap 
tain  Helm  arrived  with  his  party.  [They]  took  seven 
boats  laden  with  provision,  bale-goods,  etc.  .  .  from 
the  enemy,  with  the  following  prisoners :  Mr.  Dejean, 
Grand  Judge  of  Detroit,  Mr.  Adhemar  (Commissary), 
•with  thirty-eight  privates.  Letters  taken  from  the 

*  "The  writer  has  before  him  the  statement  of  John  Mc- 
Fall,  born  near  Vincennes  in  1798.  He  lived  near  and  in 
Vincennes  until  1817.  His  grandfather,  Ralph  Mattison,  was 
one  of  Clark's  soldiers  who  accompanied  Helm's  expedition 
up  the  Wabash,  and  he  often  told  McFall,  his  grandson,  that 
the  British  were  lying  by,  in  the  Vermillion  river,  near  its 
mouth,  where  they  were  surprised  in  the  night-time  and 
captured  by  Helm  without  firing  a  shot."  (H.  W.  Beckwith 
&  Son  in  the  History  of  Vermillion  County  [111.],  p.  259  n.) 

47 


738       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Commissary,  dated  at  Detroit,  the  6th  of  February, 
say  they  [the  writers]  are  much  afraid  of  our  people 
in  the  Spring.  [They]  pray  Gov.  Hamilton  to  come 
back  again." 

Dillon  (History  of  Indiana,  pp.  157,  158)  says: 
"These  boats  [those  captured  from  the  British]  .  . 
were  manned  by  about  forty  men,  among  whom  was 
Philip  Dejean,  a  magistrate  of  Detroit."  This  is  cal 
culated  to  convey  the  impression  that  Dejean  helped 
to  man  the  boats,  which  is  probably  error. 

"Before  Clark's  arrival  [at  Vincennes,  February 
23,  1779],  Hamilton  had  sent  Philip  Dejean  [from 
Vincennes]  to  Detroit  for  supplies,  and  on  February  9, 
he  and  Mr.  Adheimer  set  out  [from  Detroit]  with 
seven  boats  loaded  with  goods,  worth  $50,000.  Clark 
was  informed  of  their  approach,  and  sent  sixty  men 
to  intercept  the  boats,  which,  with  their  stores,  were 
captured  on  the  26th  as  they  were  coming  down  the 
Wabash."  (Farmer's  History  of  Detroit  and  Michi 
gan,  p.  252.)  But  Dejean,  as  already  shown,  was  not 
in  Vincennes  and  could  not  therefore  have  been  sent 
to  Detroit,  and  Adhemar  was  only  to  go  as  far  as 
the  head  of  the  Maumee.  Clark  was  not  informed 
of  the  approach  of  the  boats,  but  only  that  Hamilton 
had  sent  for  the  goods ;  besides,  the  boats  could  not 
have  been  captured  on  the  26th  of  February,  as  that 
was  the  day  the  party  left  Vincennes  to  intercept 
them. 

In  speaking  of  the  stores  taken  by  Captain  Helm, 
Clark  says  in  his  Memoir  that  "The  provisions  were 
taken  for  the  public,  and  the  goods  divided  among  the 
whole,  except  about  £800  worth  to  clothe  the  troops 
we  expected  to  receive  in  a  short  time.  This  was  very 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       739 

agreeable  to  the  soldiers,  as  I  told  them  the  State 
should  pay  them  in  money  their  proportions  [in  addi 
tion],  and  they  had  great  plenty  of  goods."  (Dillon's 
Indiana  (ed.  of  1859,  p.  158.)  And  Clark  adds  (pp. 
158,  159)  :  "The  quantity  of  public  goods  brought  from 
Detroit  added  to  the  whole  of  those  belonging  to  the 
traders  of  Post  Vincennes  that  had  been  taken,  was 
very  considerable.  The  whole  was  divided  among  the 
soldiery,  except  some  Indian  medals  that  were  kept, 
in  order  to  be  altered  for  public  use.  The  officers 
received  nothing,  except  a  few  articles  of  clothing  they 
stood  in  need  of.  The  soldiers  got  almost  rich." 

On  one  point  in  this  relation,  Clark's  memory  was 
at  fault ;  for  it  will  be  seen  hereafter  that  some  of  the 
goods  were  sent  to  the  Illinois  and  disposed  of  as 
public  stores  by  the  Colonel.  "The  whole,"  then,  was 
not  divided  among  the  men  and  officers,  "except  about 
£800  worth,"  as  declared  in  his  Memoir. 


NOTE  CVIII. 

CLARK'S  THREAT  TO  IRON  THOSE  BRITISH  OFFICERS 
WHO  HAD  ACTED  AS  PARTISANS  WITH  THE 

INDIANS. 

If  Colonel  Clark  really  had  irons  made  to  fetter 
such  of  his  prisoners  as  were  officers  and  had  been 
employed  as  partisans  with  the  Indians,  he  did  not 
carry  out  his  determination.  None  were  ironed. 
Schieffelin  in  his  Loose  Notes  gives  additional  words 
spoken  by  the  American  commander:  "At  dark 
[after  the  capitulation]  the  British  officers  were  in 


740       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

the  Governor's  house,  in  the  garrison,  where  Colonel 
Clark  used  most  harsh  and  insolent  expressions,  wish 
ing  he  could  have  swum  in  their  blood;  that,  as  he 
desired  to  fight,  he  would  give  Governor  Hamilton 
his  garrison  [back]  and  he  [Clark],  with  an  equal 
number  of  men,  would  meet  them ;  that  he  had  young 
fellows  that  liked  the  smell  of  gun  powder."  (Maga 
zine  of  American  History,  vol.  I,  p.  187.) 

But,  it  is  evident,  if  such  talk  was  indulged  in  by 
the  Colonel  (which  yet  may  be  doubted),  it  was  mere 
bravado,  only  intended  to  intimidate. 


NOTE  CIX. 

AS  TO  CLARK'S  TREATMENT  OF  HAMILTON  WHILE 
HOLDING  HIM  A  PRISONER  OF  WAR. 

"We  have,"  says  William  Frederick  Poole  LL.  D. 
(The  Early  Northwest,  pp.  11-13),  "n°  n'^e  °^  George 
Rogers  Clark,  or  full  history  of  the  stirring  events  in 
which  he  was  an  actor.  The  notices  of  his  life  which 
have  appeared  in  print  are  full  of  inaccuracies.  .  . 
The  "Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,"  and  "Haldi- 
mand  Collection"  at  Ottawa,  bring  out  many  facts 
supplementing  his  own  [now]  printed  reports.  In  the 
"Haldimand  Collection"  is  the  official  report  of  Henry 
Hamilton,  Governor  of  Detroit,  on  his  campaign  and 
his  capture  by  Col.  Clark  at  Vincennes,  Ind.,  in  1779. 
This  report  gives  us,  from  the  British  [rather  from 
Hamilton's]  standpoint,  the  facts  we  have  needed  con 
cerning  that  important  event.  On  the  whole  it  con 
firms  the  accuracy  of  Clark's  several  narratives, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       741 

Clark  regarded  Hamilton  as  responsible  for  the  in 
humanities  committed  upon  the  Western  settlers  by 
the  Indian  scalping  parties  sent  out  from  Detroit; 
and  hence  Clark  called  him  "the  Hair-buying  General," 
and  treated  him  with  great  severity.  .  .  .  Hamilton  in 
his  report  defends  himself  from  the  charge.  He  ad 
mits  that  he  sent  out  the  Indian  parties ;  but  states 
that  he  was  very  careful  to  give  the  savages  instruc 
tions  not  to  scalp  their  captives ;  and  he  was  confident 
that  they  obeyed  his  instructions,  because  some  pris 
oners  were  brought  in.  He  states  that  he  engaged 
in  this  sort  of  warfare  with  great  reluctance,  and  then 
only  on  Lorcl  George  Germain's  positive  instructions. 
(The  report  of  Governor  Hamilton  is  printed  in 
Michigan  Pioneer  Collections,  IX,  pp.  489-516)." 

"The  story,"  continues  Mr.  Poole,  "of  the  butcher 
ies  practised  upon  the  Western  settlements,  during  the 
Revolutionary  war,  by  Indian  scouting"  parties  sent 
out  from  Detroit,  can  hardly  be  exaggerated.  To 
avenge  these  inhumanities  was  a  leading  motive  of 
Clark  and  his  men  in  making  that  winter  campaign 
against  the  "Hair-buying  General"  at  Vincennes. 
The  policy  of  the  British  government  in  its  conduct 
of  the  war  in  the  West  is  a  subject  which  will  repay 
investigations ;  and  Gov.  Hamilton's  defense  and  his 
scheme  of  giving  wild  savages  Sunday-school  instruc 
tion  in  the  humanities,  can  then  be  considered.  What 
those  many  gross  of  'red-handled  scalping  knives' 
(Farmer's  'History  of  Detroit,'  pp.  246,  247)  were 
for,  which  regularly  appeared  in  the  official  requisi 
tions  of  merchandise  wanted  at  Detroit,  can  then  be 
explained." 


742       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

A  careful  examination  of  the  stories  fold  by  both 
Hamilton  and  Clark  of  the  capitulation  of  the  former 
and  of  his  being  a  prisoner  to  the  latter,  does  not  con 
firm  the  usual  report  of  harsh  treatment  of  the  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor  by  the  Colonel.  Clark's  declaration 
in  after  years  is  this :  "Almost  every  man  had  con 
ceived  a  favorable  opinion  of  Lieutenant  Governor 
Hamilton  —  I  believe  what  affected  myself  made  some 
impression  on  the  whole  —  and  I  was  happy  to  find 
that  he  never  deviated,  while  he  stayed  with  us,  from 
that  dignity  of  conduct  that  became  an  officer  in  his 
situation."  [Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed. 
of  1859),  p.  157.] 

Again :  it  can  hardly  be  said,  in  the  light  of  all 
cotemporaneous  evidence  which  has  been  preserved, 
that  Clark's  winter  campaign  against  the  "Hair-buy 
ing  General,"  at  Vincennes,  was  to  avenge  the  inhu 
manities  charged  against  him.  The  leading  idea  of 
Clark  was  one  of  self-preservation :  "I  must  take  him 
or  he  will  take  me." 


NOTE  CX. 

NUMBER  OF  PRISONERS  SENT  EAST  AND  OF  THE  SOLDIERS 
WHO    GUARDED    THEM. 

If  the  eighteen  privates  mentioned  in  "Bowman's 
Journal"  be  added  to  the  officers  named  (including 
also  St.  Martin),  the  whole  number  of  prisoners  sent 
off  to  the  Virginia  settlements  east  of  the  mountains 
by  Clark  is  seen  to  be  twenty-seven.  This  corresponds 
with  Hamilton  to  Haldimand,  July  6,  1781  —  Germain 
MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       743 

As  to  the  number  of  the  guard,  Hamilton's  recol 
lection,  after  a  lapse  of  over  two  years,  is  not  to  be 
relied  on.  He  says,  "our  guard  .  .  .  consisted 
of  23  persons,  including  officers."  I  have  followed 
"Bowman's  Journal"  which  gives  twenty-five  men 
exclusive  of  the  two  officers,  Williams  and  Rogers. 

Schieffelin,  in  his  Loose  Notes,  says  they  started 
on  March  4th.  In  his  letter  to  Haldimand,  of  July 
6,  1781,  Hamilton  gives  the  date  as  the  8th.  But 
here,  also,  I  have  followed  "Bowman's  Journal,"  which 
says  it  was  the  7th,  the  record  of  their  departure 
having  been  made  on  the  day  they  left.  It  is  evi 
dent  that  Hamilton  had  miscalculated  the  time,  as  a 
letter  written  by  him  on  the  day  of  leaving  is  dated 
the  8th.  .  .  The  names  given  in  the  printed  copy 
of  "Bowmna's  Journal"  (Clark's  Campaign  in  the 
Illinois,  p.  109)  of  such  of  the  prisoners  as  were  not 
privates  are  mentioned  thus  (excepting  of  course,  St. 
Martin's  name)  :  "Lieut.  Gov.  Hamilton,  Major  Hays, 
Capt.  Lamoth,  Mons.  Dejean,  Grand  Judge  of  Detroit, 
Lieut.  Shifflin,  Doct.  McBeth,  Francis  McVille,  Mr. 
Bell  Fenilb." 

In  the  MS.  copy  of  the  Journal  in  the  Department 
of  State,  the  names  are  written  as  follow :  "Lieut. 
Governor  Hamilton,  Major  Hay,  Capt.  Lamotte,  Mon 
sieur  Dejean,  Grand  Judge  of  Detroit,  Lieut.  Shifflin, 
Doct.  McBeth,  Francis  Masonville,  Mr.  Bellfeuill." 

The  correct  spelling  of  the  sir  names  of  each  of 
these  officers  including  also  the  Commissary  is  given 
in  the  text. 


744       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE  CXI. 

MARCH    OF   THE    BRITISH    PRISONERS    FROM    THE    FALLS 
OF   THE    OHIO   TO    CHESTERFIELD    COURT    HOUSE. 

Concerning  this  march  the  words  of  Lieutenant 
Schieffelin  in  his  Loose  Notes  are: 

"In  the  morning  they  [Lieutenant  Governor  Hamil 
ton  and  his  fellow  prisoners]  were  marched  under  a 
heavy  guard  to  Henry  Town  [Harrodstown;  that  is, 
Harrodsburg]  one  hundred  miles  through  woods,  etc., 
on  foot  with  their  necessaries  and  provisions;  the 
eighth  day  they  reached  the  fort  [at  Harrodsburg] 
commanded  by  a  Colonel  [John]  Bowman,  who  treated 
them  as  well  as  his  abilities  would  admit;  they  re 
mained  about  ten  days,  when  they  were  marched  for 
the  frontiers  of  Virginia,  depending  on  providence  for 
provisions,  insulted  by  every  dirty  fellow  as  they 
passed  through  the  country.  In  May,  they  got  to 
Chesterfield  Court  House,  where  they  were  kept  to  its 
limits  under  a  strong  guard." 


NOTE  CXII. 

JOHN    DODGE    AND    HIS    NARRATIVE. 

It  is  evident  from  the  Report  of  the  Virginia  Coun 
cil  that  it  had  been  placed  in  possession  of  Dodge's 
whole  story.  The  Board  gives  in  brief  the  treatment 
he  received  upon  his  first  imprisonment  in  Detroit ;  it 
recites  what  he  told  them  about  the  giving  of  standing 
rewards  for  scalps  but  offering  none  for  prisoners ;  it 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      745 

relates  how  an  unfortunate  victim,  after  being  rescued 
from  the  savages,  who  were  preparing  to  burn  him, 
was  afterward  hunted  down,  imprisoned,  and  virtually 
tortured  to  death  by  Dejean  by  "perpetual  assurance" 
of  being  restored  into  the  hands  of  the  savages" ;  and 
other  information :  all  of  which  is  set  forth  at  greater 
length  in  Dodge's  Narrative  [See  Remembrancer,  vol. 
VIII  (1779).] 

Andrew  McFarland  Davis  in  his  paper,  "The  In 
dians  and  the  Border  Warfare  of  the  Revolution" 
(Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America, 
vol.  VI,  p.  683),  says: 

"The  narrative  of  the  Capture  and  treatment  of 
John  Dodge  by  the  English  at  Detroit  was  made  pub 
lic  about  the  same  time  [as  the  Report  of  the  Vir 
ginia  Council,  in  the  'Case  of  Hamilton,  Dejean  and 
Lamothe'],  (Remembrancer  viii,  p.  73).  The  portion 
of  Dodge's  story  which  relates  to  the  reception  by 
Hamilton  of  Indians  returning  with  scalps  and  pris 
oners,  bears  a  striking  resemblance  to  the  report  of  the 
[Virginia]  Council.  Dodge  states  that  Hamilton  be 
came  so  enraged  at  him  that  the  governor  'offered  £100 
for  his  scalp  or  his  body.'  In  another  place  he  says: 
'These  sons  of  Britain  offered  no  reward  for  prisoners, 
but  they  give  the  Indians  twenty  dollars  a  scalp,"  etc., 
etc. ;  and  again :  "One  of  these  parties  returning  with 
a  number  of  women  and  children's  scalps  and  their 
prisoners,  they  were  met  by  the  commandant  of  the 
fort,  and  after  the  usual  demonstrations  of  joy,  de 
livered  their  scalps,  for  which  they  were  paid.' 

"Some  correspondence  passed  between  Jefferson 
and  the  governor  of  Detroit  [in  reality,  Lernoult,  the 
commandant  of  the  fort],  on  the  question  of  Hamil- 


746       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


ton's  treatment  as  a  prisoner,  in  which  Jefferson  dwells 
at  length  upon  Hamilton's  responsibility  for  the  acts 
of  the  Indians,  but  it  is  to  be  remarked  that  no  charge 
is  made  against  Hamilton  for  paying  bounties  for 
scalps  (Calendar  of  State  Papers  of  Virginia,  i,  p. 
321)." 

Hamilton  in  his  Official  Report  speaks  of  Dodge 
as  a  person  "known  by  several  Virginians  to  be  an 
unprincipled  and  perjured  renegade."  Lieutenant 
Schieffelin,  in  his  Loose  Notes,  is  equally  severe: 

"One  John  Dodge,  a  blacksmith,  who  resided  at 
Detroit  but  who  now  resides  with  the  rebels  at  Fort 
Pitt,  had  the  assurance  to  propagate  the  most  infamous 
falsehoods  against  Governor  Hamilton  and  his  officers, 
—  that  they  had  excited  Indians  to  kill  prisoners  when 
brought  to  Detroit,  furnishing  the  rebel  authorities 
with  a  narrative  of  his  treatment  which  was  as  false 
as  himself  was  infamous." 

The  Continental  Journal  and  Weekly  Advertiser, 
of  December  20,  1779;  and  of  January  6,  and  13,  1780, 
in  publishing  Dodge's  Narrative,  has  this  editorial 
addendum : 

"It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  three  persons  who 
make  a  principal  inglorious  figure  in  the  foregoing 
Narrative,  viz.,  Governor  Hamilton,  Dejean  (jailer), 
and  La  Mote  (captain  of  scalping  parties),  were  after 
wards  taken  by  the  brave  Colonel  Clark,  of  Virginia, 
at  Fort  St.  Vincent,  and  are  now  confined  in  irons, 
in  a  gaol  in  Virginia,  by  order  of  the  Legislature  of 
thart  State,  as  a  retaliation  for  their  former  inhuman 
treatment  of  prisoners  who  fell  into  their  hands,  par 
ticularly  Mr.  Dodge,  who  has  the  pleasing  consolation 
of  viewing  his  savage  adversaries  in  a  similar  predica- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       747 

ment  with  himself  when  in  their  power  —  tho'  'tis  not 
in  the  breast  of  generous  Americans  to  treat  them  with 
equal  barbarity." 

At  the  date,  however,  of  the  publication  of  the 
Narrative  by  the  Continental  Journal,  the  three  pris 
oners,  it  may  be  premised,  were  no  longer  in  irons. 

The  second  letter  written  by  Dodge  at  Pittsburgh 
was  in  these  words : 

"PITTSBURGH,  Sept.  18th,  1779. 

"DEAR  SIR  :  —  After  being  sent  to  Quebec  a  prisoner,  I 
found  means  to  make  my  escape  from  there  last  Winter.  I 
just  arrived  from  Williamsburg  where  I  had  the  opportunity 
of  seeing  Mr.  Hamilton,  Dejean,  and  Lamothe  in  irons  in  the 
dungeon,  and  there  they  are  to  remain  untill  the  War  is 
ended ;  they  were  put  there  for  the  usage  they  gave  me  at 
Detroit. 

"Our  army  has  met  with  great  success  this  year  as  well 
as  last.  Our  officers  and  soldiers  are  in  great  spirits. 

"Spain  has. declared  war  against  England  and  joined  their 
fleets  to  the  French.  Count  D'Estang  has  taken  several  of 
the  most  valuable  Islands  that  the  English  had  in  their 
possession. 

"I  enclose  to  you  a  proclamation  from  the  French  Ad 
miral  and  Embassador.  Mendart  Fisher  and  Elbert  Gavorot 
are  here  and  in  good  spirits.  We  expect  to  see  you  this 
winter. 

"I  would  recommend  to  the  Commandant  at  Detroit  to 
be  careful  how  he  uses  the  friends  of  the  United  States  as 
he  may  happen  to  be  called  to  an  account  as  well  as  Hamilton. 
I  am  with  great  respect,  etc., 

"JOHN  DODGE. 

"To  Philip  Boyle,  Sandusky." 


748       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


NOTE  CXIII. 

HOW   HAMILTON'S   "OFFICIAL  REPORT"    (Hamilton  to 
Haldimand,  July  6,   1781 — Germain  MSS.) 

CAME   TO    BE    WRITTEN. 

"Yesterday,"  says  Hamilton,  "being  the  fifth  of 
July,  [1781]  I  had  the  honor  of  paying  my  respects  to 
Lord  George  Germain.  His  Lordship  was  pleased  to 
attend  to  the  account  I  gave  of  my  ill  success  and  the 
treatment  we  experienced  from  the  rebels,  from  the  day 
of  our  being  made  prisoners  of  war  —  the  twenty-fifth 
of  February,  1779  —  to  the  fourth  of  March,  1781, 
when  we  were  totally  out  of  their  power,  by  a  final 
exchange.  Having  mentioned  to  his  Lordship  that 
I  had  preserved  a  diary  of  transactions,  he  directed 
me  to  commit  to  paper  a  brief  account  and  transmit 
the  same  to  your  Excellency. 

"In  obedience  to  his  Lordship's  orders,  I  shall  en 
deavor  to  avoid  detail,  and  supply  as  well  as  may  be 
the  want  of  such  papers  as  were  siezed  by  order  of 
the  rebel  Governor,  Mr.  Jefferson,  on  our  being  thrown 
into  the  dungeon  at  Williamsburg.  Some  things  pre 
vious  to  the  arrival  of  your  Excellency  at  Quebec,  it 
may  be  proper  slightly  to  mention." 

[Then  follows  a  lengthy  statement,  by  the  Lieu 
tenant  Governor,  of  the  principal  points  in  his  career, 
from  the  day  of  his  arrival  in  Detroit  to  the  time  of 
his  reaching  England  after  his  captivity.  It  is  really 
a  very  complete  Official  Report.  At  the  conclusion, 
the  following  is  added :] 

"Thus,  Sir,  I  have  attempted  to  give  your  Excel 
lency  some  account  of  my  unfortunate  failure,  with 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       749 

the  causes  of  it,  which  while  I  lament  I  must  attribute 
chiefly,  if  not  entirely,  to  the  treachery  of  persons  whom 
I  had  reason  to  expect  lenity  and  moderation  would 
have  gained,  and  whose. interest  it  was  to  be  faithful. 

"Among  those  to  be  raised  for  this  service,  there 
was  but  little  choice,  the  arts  of  some  rebel  emmisaries, 
and  the  intrigues  of  persons  still  attached  to  the  in 
terest  of  France,  got  the  better  of  the  good  intentions 
the  Canadians  might  have  set  out  with. 

"The  difficulties  and  danger  of  Colonel  Clark's 
march  from  the  Illinois  were  such  as  required  great 
courage  to  encounter,  and  great  perseverance  to  over 
come. 

"In  trusting  to  traitors  he  was  more  fortunate 
than  myself;  whether,  on  the  whole,  he  was  entitled 
to  success  is  not  for  me  to  determine.  If  my  conduct 
appears  to  your  Excellency  in  a  justifiable  light,  I 
may  hope  to  be  more  pitied  than  blamed ;  at  least 
your  approbation  will  enable  me  to  support  the  weight 
of  that  censure  which  seldom  fails  to  accompany  an 
unsuccessful  enterprise. 

"I  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  profound  respect, 
"Sir,"  Your  Excellency's  most  devoted,  most  obedient 
and  most  humble  Servant, 

"HENRY  HAMILTON. 

"Jermyn  Street,  London, 

"July  6th  .1781.'' 

In  vol.  IX  of  the  Michigan  Pioneer  Collections 
(pp.  489-516),  this  "Official  Report"  is  printed  from 
a  copy  taken  from  another  copy  in  the  Ottawa  (Can 
ada)  Archives.  By  comparing  what  is  thus  printed 
with  the  MS.  before  me  from  the  Germain  Collection, 
J  note  the  following  (among  other)  variations: 


750       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Page  489.  For   "the   Prisoners  and  general,"   read  "the 

prisoners,  a  general." 

Page  489.  "For  "an  ill  success,"  read  "our  ill  success." 

Page  490.  For  "Warrior,"  read  "warriors." 

Page  490.     For  "of  future  peace  urged  it,"  read  "of  a 

future  peace  urged,  if." 

Page  491.  After  third  paragraph,  insert  —  "On  the  llth 

I  had  accounts  of  your  Excellency's  arrival  at  Quebec." 

Page    491.     For    "Having    received,"    read    "Having    re 
viewed." 

Page    491.     For    "Lieutenant    Howe    [Showd     ?],"    read 

"Lieutenant  Showd." 

Page  495.  For  "of  complaint,"  read  "for  complaint." 

Page   495.  For    "ourselves    in    this    post    where    we    had 

those,"  read  "a  post  in  this  place  where  we  had  these." 

Page  497.  For  "Capt.  Blomer,"  read  "Capt.  Blowser." 

Page  497.  For   "without   having   taken,"   read   "without 

taking.  ' 

Page  498.  After  the  words  "being  finished,"  insert  "ex 
cept  the  living  of  the  stockade." 

Page  500.  For  "spirit  of  the,"  read  "spirit  and  courage 

of  the. 

Page  501.  After  "virtuous,"  insert  "elevated." 

Page  501.  For  "Mr.  Maisonville's,"  read  "Mr.  Maison- 

ville." 

Page  502.  For  "his  situation,"  read  "his  intention." 

Page   503.  For   "agreed   to   them,"    read   "agreed   to   the 

conditions." 

Page  503.  For  "our  present,"  read  "the  present." 

Page  503.  "For  "was  found  on,"  read  "was  to  be  found 

in." 

Page  504.  For  "with  arms,"  read  "with  their  arms." 

Page  504.  For  "ten  o'clock,"  read  "two  o'clock." 

Page  506.  After  "ration,"  insert  "for  ten  days  only." 

Page  506.  For  "a  cover,"  read  "a  tilt." 

Page  506.  For  "my  journey,"  read  "the  journey." 

Page  507.  For  "known  on  the  27th,"  read  "known  here 

on  the  29th." 

Page  507.  For  "of  escaping,"  read  "of  our  escaping." 

Page  507.  For  "different  times,"  read  "different  places." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       751 

Page  507.  For  "General  Reidevel,"  read  "General 
Reidesel." 

Page  507.     For  "of  the  the  march,"  read  "of  our  march." 
Page  509.     For  "now  been,"  read  "now  lain." 
Page  509.     For  "our  treatment,"  read  "our  ill  treatment." 
Page  510.     For  "these  publications,"   read   "their  publi 
cations." 

Page  510.     For  "disengenious,"  read  "disengenuous." 
Page  511.     For  "1778,"  read  "1779." 

Page  512.  For  "Governor  of  Virginia,"  read  "Governor 
of  the  Commonwealth  of  Virginia." 

Page  512.     For  "assertions,"  read  "asseverations." 
Page  512.     For  "windows,"  read  "window."" 
Page  513.     Put  a  period  after  "destroyed  himself" ;    and 
then  begin  a  new  paragraph. 

Page  513.     For  "King  Williams,"  read  "King  William." 
Page  513.     For  'the  country,"  read  "the  county." 
Page  513.     For  "practicable,"  read  "possible." 
Page  513.     For  "the  parole,"  read  "a  parole." 
Page  513.     For  "successor,"  read  "successors." 
Page  514.     For  "charter"   (twice),  read  "cartel." 
Page    514.     For    "Captain    Grayton"    three    times),    read 
"Captain   Gayton." 

Page  515.     For  "Chartel,"  read  "Cartel." 
Page  515.     For  "General  Wilson,"  read  "General  Nelson." 
Page  515.     For  "get  away,"  read  "get  us  away." 
Page  515.     For  "a  log  lime,"  read  "a  logline." 
Page  515.     For  "Major  General  Phillips,  Lord  Rawdon," 
read  "Major  General  Philips  and. Lord  Rawdon." 

Page  515.     For  "the  brigues,"  read  "the  intrigues." 
Page  515.     For  "Colonel  Clarke's,"  read  "Colonel  Clark's/' 

There  are  a  number  of  other  variances  but,  gen 
erally,  of  little  importance. 

The  reason  why  Hamilton's  letter  (which,  as  we 
have  said,  is  really  an  Official  Report)  in  this  narra 
tive  as  from  the  Germain  MSS.,  is,  because  the  copy 
used  is  from  the  original  in  that  collection.  This  orig 
inal  has  its  duplicate  in  the  Haldimand  Collection.  A 


752       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

copy  from  this  duplicate  is  the  one  in  the  public  Ar 
chives  at  Ottawa,  Canada. 


NOTE  CXIV. 


27,  1779. 

aOn  the  27th,  our  galley  arrived  all  safe,  the 
crew  much  mortified,  although  they  deserved  great 
credit  for  their  dilligence.  They  had  on  their  passage 
taken  up  William  Myres,  express  from  [the  Virginia] 
government.  The  despatches  gave  much  encourage 
ment  :  our  own  battalion  was  to  be  completed,  and  an 
additional  one  to  be  expected  in  the  course  of  the 
Spring."  [Clark's  Memoir — Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of 
1859),  p.  157.] 

Butler  (History  of  Kentucky,  p.  87)  relates  that 
"on  the  return  of  this  [Helm's]  successful  expedition, 
with  the  British  flags  still  flying,  our  galley  [the 
Willing}  hove  in  sight,  and  was  preparing  for  an  at 
tack  upon  the  little  river  fleet,  supposing  it  to  be  the 
enemy ;  but  soon  the  beloved  ensign  of  American  free 
dom  was  hoisted  at  the  masthead,  to  the  joy  and  tri 
umph  of  our  countrymen."  Now  this  recital  of  the 
Kentucky  historian  has  no  foundation  in  fact.  The 
Willing,  as  above  related,  arrived  on  the  27th  of  Feb 
ruary,  but  Captain  Helm,  as  before  mentioned,  did  not 
return  until  the  5th  of  March.  Of  course,  this,  to  a 
great  extent,  spoils  Butler's  pleasing  narrative ;  al 
though  the  British  flags  may  have  been  kept  flying 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       753 

until  it  was  no  longer  safe  when  the  stars  and  stripes 
were  run  up  to  the  mast  head. 

The  fact  that  Myres's  name  is  given  as  "Morris" 
in  Clark's  letter  of  April  29,  1779,  to  the  Virginia 
governor  when  printed  in  Jefferson's  Works,  is  easily 
accounted  for.  Clark  was  a  poor  speller  and  had 
written  it  "Moires,"  which,  very  naturally,  was  sup 
posed  to  be  intended  for  "Morris."  "Bowman's  Jour 
nal"  spells  the  name  with  an  i,  instead  of  a  y,  thus  : 
"Mires."  But  Clark,  in  his  Memoir — Dillon's  Indi 
ana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  159  —  has  the  correct  spelling. 

Bancroft  [History  of  the  United  States  (ed.  of 
1885),  vol.  V,  p.  314]  says: 

"The  joy  of  the  men  of  the  North-west  was  com 
pleted  by  the  return  of  their  messenger  from  Virginia, 
bringing  from  the  house  of  assembly  its  votes  of 
October  and  November,  1778,  establishing  the  county 
of  Illinois,  and  thanking  Colonel  Clark  and  the  brave 
officers  and  men  under  his  command  for  their  extra 
ordinary  resolution  and  perseverance,  and  for  the  im 
portant  services  which  they  had  thereby  rendered  their 
country. 

"Since  the  time  of  that  vote  they  had  undertaken 
a  far  more  hazardous  enterprise,  and  had  obtained  per 
manent  possession  of  all  the  important  posts  and  settle 
ments  on  the  Illinois  and  Wabash,  rescued  the  inhabi 
tants  from  British  dominion,  and  established  civil 
government  in  its  republican  form." 

It  is,  strictly  speaking,  not  correct  to  say  the  mes 
senger,  Myres,  returned  "from  Virginia;"  as  Vincen- 
nes,  according  to  the  Virginia  claim,  was  in  that  State ; 
but  the  positive  error  is  in  the  words,  "on  the  Illinois 
and  Wabash"  (the  italicising  is  mine),  for  "in  the  111- 
48 


754       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

inois  and  on  the  Wabash" ;  nor  can  it  be  said  that 
these  "men  of  the  North-west"  had  as  yet  established 
(if  indeed,  they  ever  did  establish)  a  government  there 
of  any  form.  The  use  of  the  word  "rescued"  fe,  per 
haps,  expressive  of  too  much  change  in  the  feelings  of 
the  inhabitants,  on  their  coming  under  American  rule. 


NOTE  CXV. 

LETTERS  OF  COL.  GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK.* 

(i.)    To  Patrick  Henry,   Governor  of   Virginia. 

"FORT  PATRICK  HENRY,  March  9,  1779. 

"DEAR  SIR:  —  By  Wm.  Moires  [Myers]  you  wrote  me, 
if  possible  to  procure  you  some  horses  and  mares.  Nothing 
could  give  me  greater  pleasure  than  to  serve  }rou,  but  I 
doubt  at  present  it  is  out  of  my  power,  as  my  situation  and 
circumstances  are  much  altered.  There  are  no  such  horses 
here  as  you  request  me  to  get  and  I  have  so  much  public 
business  to  do,  especially  in  the  Indian  department  that  I 
doubt  if  I  shall  be  able  to  go  to  the  Illinois  for  some  time. 
I  find  that  you  have  conceived  a  greater  opinion  of  the  horses 
in  this  country  than  I  have.  The  Pawnee  and  Chickasaw 
horses  are  very  good  and  some  of  them  delicate ;  but  the 
common  breed  in  this  country  is  triffling,  as  it  is  adulterated. 
The  finest  stallion  by  far  that  is  in  the  country,  I  purchased 
sometime  ago  and  rode  him  on  this  expedition ;  and  I  re 
solved  to  compliment  you  by  presenting  him  to  you;  but,  to 
my  mortification,  I  find  it  impossible  to  get  him  across  the 
drowned  lands  of  the  Wabash,  as  it  is  near  three  leagues 
across  at  present  and  no  appearance  of  its  falling  shortly; 
but  you  may  depend  that  I  shall,  by  the  first  opportunity, 
send  him  to  you.  He  came  from  New  Mexico,  three  hun- 

*  From  the   Haldimand   MSS. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      755 

clred  leagues  west  of  this.  I  don't  think  it  in  my  power  to 
send  you  such  mares  as  you  want  this  spring ;  but  in  order 
to  procure  you  the  best  that  can  be  got,  I  shall  contract  with 
some  man  of  the  Spanish  Government  by  permit  of  the  Com 
mandant  to  go  to  the  Pawnee  Nation,  two  hundred  leagues 
west,  and  get  the  finest  mares  to  be  had  of  the  true  blood; 
they  will  be  good,  as  they  are  all  so ;  if  they  are  handsome, 
they  will  please  you.  I  shall  give  such  instructions  as  will 
be  necessary  and  am  in  hopes  that  you  will  get  them  by 
fall. 

"I  could  get  five  or  six  mares  soon,  at  the  Illinois,  very 
fine,  but  I  think  they  are  hurt  by  hard  usage,  as  the  inhabit 
ants  are  barbarous  horse-masters;  but  I  shall  do  it,  except 
I  can  execute  my  other  plan. 

"I  thank  you  for  your  remembrances  of  my  situation 
respecting  lands  in  the  frontiers.  I  learn  that  Government 
has  reserved  lands  on  the  Cumberland  for  the  soldiers. 

"If  I  should  be  deprived  of  a  certain  tract  of  land  on 
that  river  which  I  purchased  three  years  ago  and  have  been 
at  a  considerable  expense  to  improve,  I  shall  in  a  manner 
lose  my  all.  It  is  known  by  the  name  of  the  'Great  French 
Lick,'  on  the  south  or  west  side,  containing  three  thousand 
acres.  If  you  can  do  anything  for  me  in  saving  it,  I  shall 
forever  remember  it  with  gratitude. 

"There  are  glorious  situations  and  bodies  of  land  in  this 
country  formerly  purchased.  I  am  in  hopes  of  being  able  in  a 
short  time  to  send  you  a  map  of  the  whole.  My  compliments 
to  your  lady  and  family.  I  remain,  Sir,  Your  Humble  serv't, 

"G.  R.  CLARK. 

"To  His  Excellency  Pat.  Henry,  Esq.,  Gov'r.  of  Virginia, 
Williamsburg. 

"Per.  Wm.  Moires   [Myres]." 

(2.)     To  Col.  Harrison,  Speaker  of  the  Virginia 
House  of  Delegates. 

"FORT  PATRICK  HENRY,  VINCENNES,  March  10,  1779. 

"DEAR  SIR  :  —  I  received  your  kind  letter  with  the  thanks 
of  the  House  inclosed.  I  must  confess,  Sir,  that  I  think  my 


756       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

country  has  done  no  more  honor  than  I  merited ;  but  you 
may  rest  assured  that  my  study  shall  be  to  deserve  the  honor 
they  have  already  conferred  on  me. 

"By  my  public  letters,  you  will  be  fully  acquainted  with 
my  late  successful  expedition  against  Lt.  Govr.  Hamilton, 
who  has  fallen  into  my  hands  with  all  the  principal  partisans 
of  Detroit.  This  stroke  will  nearly  put  an  end  to  the 
Indian  War.  Had  I  but  men  enough  to  take  the  advantage 
of  the  present  confusion  of  the  Indian  Nations,  I  could 
silence  the  whole  in  two  months.  I  learn  that  five  hundred 
men  are  ordered  out  to  reinforce  me.  If  they  arrive,  with 
what  I  have  in  the  country,  I  am  in  hopes  it  will  enable  me 
to  do  something  clever. 

"I  am  with  respect,  Sir,  your  very  humble  servant, 

"G.  R.  CLARK. 

"Col.  Harrison,  Speaker  of  the  House  D.,  Williamsburg. 

"Per.  Wm.  Moires   [Myres]." 

(j.)     G.  R.  Clark's  Warrant  to  Myres. 

"FORT  PATRICK  HENRY,  March  13,  1779. 

"To  William  Moires  [Myres]. 

"SiR :  As  the  letters  you  have  at  present  contain  matters 
of  great  consequence  and  require  a  quick  passage  to  Williams- 
burg,  this  is  to  empower  you  to  press  for  the  service  anything 
you  may  stand  in  need  of.  If  you  cannot  get  it  by  fair 
means,  you  are  to  use  force  of  arms.  I  request  of  you  to  lose 
no  time,  as  you  prize  the  interest  of  your  country.  I  wish 
you  success,  etc.  "G.  R.  CLARK." 


NOTE  CXVI. 

WILLIAM    MYRES    AND    THREE    COMPANIONS    START    FOR 
WILLIAMSBURG. 

In    "Bowman's    Journal"    as    printed    in    Clark's 
Campaign  in  the  Illinois  (p.  no),  the  fact  of  Myres 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       757 

again  setting  out  with  three  men  by  water  is  entirely 
omitted.  They  started  the  second  time  on  the  same 
day  of  Myres'  return. 

That  Myres  did  not  leave  the  Falls  earlier  than 
the  fourth  of  April  is  evidenced  by  the  following  letter 
entrusted  to  his  care,  written  by  a  brother  of  Daniel 
Boone  to  Arthur  Campbell  and  given  verbatim: 

"CANTUCKY  COUNTY  THE  FALLS  OF  OHIO 

"April  4th,  1779 
"SiR 

"I  received  your  letter  Dated  Decm  20th  for  which  I 
return  you  grate  thanks  but  in  regard  to  seling  the  Horse 
I  would  much  rather  I  could  get  him  out  hear,  for  the  In 
dians  has  took  my  Horses  &  they  are  very  dear  to  buy  hear, 
and  humbly  beg  you  would  send  to  the  Gentleman  that  has 
him  to  send  him  to  me  by  William  Moires  and  you  will 
much  oblige  your  humble  servant 

"SQUIRE  BOON 

"Nevertheless  if  the   Gentleman   sees  cause  to  keep  him 
and  send  me  two  hundred  pounds  let  him  use  his  pleasure 
'To 

"Coir.  Arthur  Comble 
"these" 


NOTE  CXVIL 

CONCERNING    CLARK'S     MS.     JOURNAL     OF    THE    TAKING 
OF    VINCENNES. 

That  Clark  kept  a  Journal  giving  an  account  of 
his  setting  out  from  Kaskaskia  to  attack  Hamilton  in 
Vincennes,  of  his  march  to  the  place  last  mentioned, 
;>nd  of  the  capitulation  of  Fort  Sackville  by  Hamilton, 
causes  a  keen  regret  that  all  that  part  giving  daily 


758       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

particulars,  to  the  ending  of  the  22d  of  February, 
1779,  has  not  been  preserved.  "This  precious  docu 
ment  [that  is,  so  much  of  it  as  relates  events  which 
took  place  from  February  24th  to  February  27th,  in 
clusive],  giving  details  of  the  campaign  and  surrender," 
says  a  recent  writer,  "which  are  nowhere  else  to  be 
found,  has  never  been  printed;  and,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  has  never  been  used,  except  in  a  brief  sum 
mary  [in  Roosevelt's  The  Winning  of  the  West}!' 
But  the  same  writer,  because  of  an  error  in  a  previous 
publication,  is  led  to  the  conclusion  that  Clark's  Jour 
nal  was  in  the  form  of  a  letter,  and  that  it  was  written 
on  the  24th  of  February,  the  day  of  Hamilton's  sur 
render  (William  Frederick  Poole  in  The  Early  North 
west,  p.  22)  ;  whereas  the  Journal  (and  a  journal  it 
really  was)  has  an  entry  (and  it  is  the  concluding  one) 
of  February  27th,  1779,  relating  to  the  arrival  at  Vin- 
cennes  of  the  Willing.  The  Journal  is  from  the  Haldi- 
mand  MSS.  and  has  an  eventful  history  hereafter  to 
be  related. 


NOTE  CXVIII. 

THE    SENDING    HOME    BY    CLARK    OF    MOST    OF    HIS 
PRISONERS    FROM    VINCENNES. 

In  Clark's  letter  of  the  twenty-ninth  of  April, 
1779,  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia  (Jefferson's  Works, 
vol.  I,  p.  222n)  are  these  words:  "The  number  of 
prisoners  we  had  taken,  added  to  those  of  the  garrison, 
was  so  considerable  when  compared  to  our  own  num 
bers,  that  we  were  at  a  loss  how  to  dispose  of  them 
so  as  not  to  interfere  with  our  future  operations." 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       759 

In  his  Memoir,  Clark  writes  upon  the  subject  at 
greater  length  (Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  pp. 
160,  161) : 

"A  company  of  .volunteers  from  Detroit,"  are  the 
subsequent  words  of  Clark,  "mostly  composed  of 
young  men,  was  drawn  up ;  and,  when  expecting  to  be 
sent  off  into  a  strange  country,  .they  were  told  that 
we  were  happy  to  learn  that  many  of  them  were  torn 
from  their  fathers  and  mothers  and  forced  upon  this 
expedition ;  others,  ignorant  of  the  true  cause  in  con 
test,  had  engaged  from  a  principle  that  actuates  a  great 
number  of  men  —  that  of  being  fond  of  enterprise ;  but 
that  they  had  now  a  good  opportunity  to  make  them 
selves  fully  acquainted  with  the  nature  of  the  war, 
which  they  might  explain  to  their  friends ;  and  that 
as  we  knew  that  sending  them  to  the  States  where 
they  would  be  confined  in  a  jail  probably  for  the  course 
of  the  war,  would  make  a  great  number  of  our  friends 
at  Detroit  unhappy,  we  had  thought  proper,  for  their 
sakes,  to  suffer  them  to  return  home. 

"A  great  deal  more,"  continues  Clark,  "was  said 
to  them  on  this  subject.  On  the  whole,  they  were 
discharged  on  taking  an  oath  not  to  bear  arms  against 
America  until  exchanged.  They  received  an  order  for 
their  arms,  boats  and  provisions  to  return  with;  the 
boats  were  to  be  sold  and  divided  among  them  when 
they  got  home.  In  a  few  days,  they  set  out."  .  .  . 
The  inference  from  what  is  thus  given  by  Clark  is  that 
nothing  had  been  said  previously  by  the  prisoners  as 
to  their  desire  to  be  released  on  parole,  and  that  the 
whole  movement  was  the  result  of  Clark's  policy  to 
alienate  the  French  inhabitants  of  Detroit  from  the 
British  interests ;  but  the  following  letter  disproves 
this  (the  italicising  is  mine)  : 


760       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 


"FORT  PATRICK  HENRY,  VINCENNES,  March  20,  1779. 

"SiR:  In  justice  to  my  countryman,  Mr.  Tho's  Bentley, 
who  has  been  detained  in  Canada  almost  two  years  as  prisoner 
to  the  ruin  of  his  business  and  distraction  of  his  family,  [I 
write  you  to  obtain  his  release].  I  hope  you  will  therefore 
consider  the  lenity  shown  to  the  prisoners  that  fell  into  the 
hands  of  Colonel  George  Rogers  Clark,  at  this  post,  who, 
upon  application,  obtained  permission  from  the  Colonel  to 
return  to  their  families  at  Detroit;  and  that  you  will  also 
apply  to  the  Commander-in-chief  in  Canada  to  obtain  the 
permission  [release]  of  the  said  Tho's  Bentley,  in  order 
that  he  may  once  more  return  to  his  family,  which  suffer 
much  by  his  absence. 

"I  am,  Sir,  Your  most  humble  servant, 

"JOSEPH  BOWMAN, 
"Major  in  Col.  Clark's  Battalion. 
"On  public  service, 

"CAPT.  R.  B.  LERNOULT,  ESQ., 

"Commandant  at  Detroit." 


NOTE  CXIX. 

COLONEL  G.   R.    CLARK  TO   CAPTAIN   R.   B.   LERNOULT. 

"FORT  PATRICK  HENRY,  VINCENNES,  March  16,  1779. 

"SiR :  As  many  of  the  gentlemen  that  fell  into  my  hands 
at  this  post,  left  letters  at  their  departure  for  their  friends 
at  Detroit,  I  have  enclosed  them  to  you,  hoping  that  you  will 
expedite  them  to  the  persons  to  whom  they  are  directed.  As 
a  few  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  town,  with  a  number  of  your 
own  people,  have  permits  to  go  to  Detroit  on  their  lawfull 
business,  I  hope  you  will  not  detain  such  as  should  want  to 
return,  as  you  may  be  assured  that  I  want  no  intelligence 
from  them. 

"You  have  one  Mr.  Bentley,  inhabitant  of  the  Illinois 
a  prisoner  among  you.  I  would  fondly  exchange  one  for  him 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      761 

of  equal  rank,  if  agreeable.  I  learn  by  your  letter  to  Govr. 
Hamilton,  that  you  were  very  busy  making  new  works.  I 
am  glad  to  hear  it,  as  it  will  save  the  Americans  some  ex- 
pence  in  building. 

"My  compliments  to  the  Gentlemen  of  your  Garrison.  I 
am  Yours,  etc., 

"G.  R.  CLARK. 

"Capt.  Lernoult. 

"The  officers  of  Fort  Patrick  Henry  solicit  Cap't  Ler 
noult  to  present  their  compliments  to  the  officers  of  his 
Garrison." 


NOTE  CXX. 

CLARK'S  COUNCIL,  IN  MARCH,  1779,  WITH  INDIANS 
AT  VINCENNES. 

When,  after  the  lapse  of  years,  Clark  attempts  to 
recall  the  proceedings  of  this  council,  he  varies  his 
language  in  many  ways  from  what  he  used  in  describ 
ing  it  a  few  months  after  it  took  place:  "On  the 
fifteenth  of  March,  1779,"  are  his  words,  "a  party  of 
upper  Piankeshaws  and  some  Pottawattomie  and 
Miami  chiefs,  made  their  appearance,  making  great 
protestations  of  their  attachment  to  the  Americans ; 
begged  that  they  might  be  taken  under  the  cover  of 
our  wings,  and  that  the  roads  through  the  lands  might 
be  made  straight,  and  all  the  stumbling-blocks  re 
moved  ;  and  that  our  friends,  the  neighboring  nations, 
might  also  be  considered  in  the  same  point  of  view. 
I  well  knew  from  what  principle  all  this  sprang;  and, 
as  I  had  Detroit  now  in  my  eye,  it  was  my  business  to 
make  a  straight  and  clear  road  for  myself  to  walk, 
without  thinking  much  of  their  interest,  or  anything 


762       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

else  but  that  of  opening  the  road  in  earnest,  by  flattery, 
deception,  or  any  other  means  that  occurred." 

•"I  told  them,"  is  Clark's  further  narration,  "that 
I  was  glad  to  see  them,  and  was  happy  to  learn  that 
most  of  the  nations  on  the  Wabash  and  Omi  [Maumee] 
rivers  had  proved  themselves  to  be  men,  by  adhering 
to  the  treaties  they  had  made  with  the  Big  Knife  last 
fall,  except  a  few  weak  minds  that  had  been  deluded 
by  the  English  to  come  to  war;  that  I  did  not  know 
exactly  who  they  were  nor  much  cared ;  but  under 
stood  they  were  a  band  chiefly  composed  of  almost  all 
the  tribes  (such  people  were  to  be  found  among  all 
nations)  ;  but,  as  these  kind  of  people,  who  had  the 
meanness  to  sell  their  country  for  a  shirt,  were  not 
worthy  the  attention  of  warriors,  we  would  say  no 
more  about  them  and  think  on  subjects  more  becom 
ing  us.  I  told  them  I  should  let  the  great  Council  of 
the  Americans  know  of  their  good  behavior,  and  knew 
they  would  be  counted  as  friends  of  the  Big  Knife, 
and  would  always  be  under  the  protection,  and  their 
country  secured  to  them ;  as  the  Big  Knife  had  land 
enough  and  did  not  want  any  more ;  but,  if  ever  they 
broke  their  faith,  the  Big  Knife  would  never  again 
trust  them,  as  they  never  hold  friendship  with  a  peo 
ple  that  they  find  with  two  hearts." 

Clark  also  told  them  according  to  this  his  account, 
"that  they  were  witnesses  of  the  calamities  the  British 
had  brought  on  their  countries  by  their  false  asser 
tions  and  their  presents,  which  was  a  proof  of  their 
weakness ;  that  they  saw  that  all  their  boasted  valor 
was  like  to  fall  to  the  ground,  and  they  would  not 
come  out  of  the  fort  the  other  day  to  try  to  save  the 
Indians  that  they  flattered  to  war  and  suffered  to  be 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       763 

killed  in  their  sight ;  and,  as  the  nature  of  the  war 
had  been  fully  explained  to  them  [the  Indians]  last 
fall  they  might  clearly  see  that  the  Great  Spirit  would 
not  suffer  it  to  be  otherwise ;  that  it  was  not  only  the 
case  on  the  Wabash  but  everywhere  else;  that  they 
might  be  assured  that  the  nations  that  would  continue 
obstinately  to  believe  the  English,  would  be  driven 
out  of  the  land  and  their  countries  given  to  those  who 
were  more  steady  friends  to  the  Americans." 

"I  told  them,"  adds  Clark,  ''that  I  expected,  for 
the  future,  that  if  any  of  my  people  should  be  going 
to  war  through  their  country  that  they  would  be  pro 
tected,  which  should  be  always  the  case  with  their 
people  among  us ;  and  that  mutual  confidence  should 
continue  to  exist  [between  us]." 

"They  replied,"  are  the  concluding  words  of  the 
narration,  "that,  from  what  they  had  seen  and  heard, 
they  were  convinced  that  the  Master  of  Life  had  a 
hand  in  all  things ;  that  their  people  would  rejoice 
on  their  return ;  that  they  would  take  pains  to  diffuse 
what  they  heard  through  all  the  nations,  and  made  no 
doubt  of  the  good  effect  of  it ;  and,  after  a  long  speech 
in  the  Indian  style  calling  all  the  Spirits  to  be  wit 
nesses,  they  concluded  by  renewing  the  chain  of  friend 
ship,  smoking  the  sacred  pipe,  and  exchanging  belts ; 
and,  I  believe,  went  off  really  well  pleased." 
(Clark's  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859), 
pp.  162,  163.) 

In  "Bowman's  Journal"  in  the  Department  of 
State  MSS.,  there  are  mentioned  Pottawattomies  and 
Miamies,  besides  the  Piankeshaws,  as  having  met  Clark 
in  council,  but  the  Kickapoos  are  not  named.  As 
printed  in  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  the  Pian- 


764       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

keshaws  and  Miamies  are  spoken  of  only,  the  first 
named  being  put  down  as  "Peaians."  Clark,  in  his 
Memoir  as  we  have  just  seen,  mentions,  as  making 
their  appearance,  "a  party  of  upper  Piankeshaws  and 
some  Pottawattomie  and  Miami  chiefs."  It  is  certain, 
however,  in  view  of  what  the  Colonel  says  in  his  letter 
to  Mason,  that  there  were  at  the  council  upper  and 
lower  Piankeshaws,  Kickapoos,  Pottawattomies  and 
Miamies.  The  up-river  Piankeshaws  had  their  vil 
lage  on  the  Vermillion  about  one  mile  above  its  con 
fluence  with  the  Wabash.  The  Miami  Indians  repre 
sented  were  those  of  Eel  river ;  but  the  chiefs  present 
were  evidently  dissembling  as  they  really  stood  neutral 
so  far  as  the  Americans  and  British  were  concerned. 
(History  of  the  Girtys,  p.  107.) 


NOTE  CXXL 

WHY  CLARK  RESOLVED  TO  RETURN  TO  KASKASKIA. 

Clark,  in  his  Memoir  —  Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of 
1859),  p.  160  —  says  that  his  resolve  to  return  to 
Kaskaskia  was  to  blind  his  designs  against  Detroit. 
"The  enterprise,"  he  declares,  "was  deferred  until  the 
—  of  June,  when  our  troops  were  to  rendezvous  at 
Vincennes.  In  the  meantime,  every  preparation  was 
to  be  made,  procuring  provisions,  etc. ;  and  to  blind 
our  designs,  the  whole,  except  a  small  garrison,  should 
march  immediately  to  the  Illinois ;  and  orders  were 
sent  to  Kentucky  to  prepare  themselves  to  meet  at  the 
appointed  time.  This  was  now  our  proposed  plan, 
and  directed  our  operations  during  the  Spring."  That 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       V65 

this  is  error  there  can  be  no  doubt.  So  important  a 
fact  would  not  have  been  omitted  by  Clark  in  his  letter 
to  the  Governor  on  the  twenty-ninth  of  April  follow 
ing;  and  especially  would  he  not  have  been  silent  on 
the  subject  in  writing  to  Mason  on  the  nineteenth  of 
the  next  November.  His  words  to  the  latter  clearly 
imply  that  he  presumed  matters  would,  in  the  end,  all 
prove  favorable  and  enable  him  to  undertake  the  ex 
pedition  ;  and  he  contented  himself  upon  that  pre 
sumption. 


NOTE  CXXII. 

CONCERNING    THE    SO-CALLED    "BOWMAN'S    JOURNAL." 

"Bowman's  Journal."  so  frequently  cited  in  this 
narrative,  has  this  heading  to  the  copy  in  the  Depart 
ment  of  State  MSS.:  "A  Journal  of  Col.  G.  R. 
Clark's  Proceeding  from  the  29th  January,  1779  to 
the  2oth  March  Inst."  In  the  published  Journal,  in 
Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  it  reads:  "Journal 
of  the  Proceedings  of  Col.  Geo.  R.  Clark,  from  27th 
January,  1779,  to  March  2Oth  inst."  The  first  date 
given  in  the  last  heading  is  certainly  error,  as  what  is 
recorded  as  transpiring  on  that  day  is  known  to  have 
occurred  on  the  29th.  Roosevelt,  in  The  Winning  of 
the  West,  vol.  II,  p.  7on,  changes  the  heading  of  the 
one  in  the  Department  of  State  MSS.,  in  this  wise: 
"A  Journal  of  Col.  G.  R.  Clark.  Proceedings  from 
the  29th  January,  1779  to  the  26th  March  Inst." 
This,  of  course,  changes  the  sense,  making  what  fol 
lows  to  be  the  journal  of  Clark.  And  yet,  in  his 
next  sentence,  he  explains  that  the  Journal  was  written 


766       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

by  Captain  Bowman.  It  is  generally  credited  to  that 
officer ;  and,  because  of  this,  it  is  known  as  "Bow 
man's  Journal."  It  was  first  published  in  the  Louis 
ville  Literary  Neivs-Letter,  November  21,  1840,  from 
the  "original,"  but  not  until  it  had  been  "revised" — 
generally  to  its  harm.  It  is  copied  from  the  News- 
Letter  into  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp.  99- 
iii.  The  copy  in  the  Department  of  State  MSS.,  was 
taken  before  the  revision  was  made,  and  it  is  the 
most  reliable.  The  Journal  is  a  daily  record  of  what 
took  place  on  the  march  to  Vincennes  and  on  the 
arrival  there  of  Clark  and  his  force. 

It  is  proper  to  mention  that  citing  the  document 
in  this  narrative,  as  "Bowman's  Journal,"  has  been 
done  so  for  convenience  —  not  because  Captain  Joseph 
Bowman  was  (as  is  generally  supposed)  the  author. 
The  last  entry  shows  he  was  not.  He  left  Vincennes 
with  Clark  on  the  twentieth  of  March ;  yet  the  entry 
in  the  Journal  on  that  day  shows  the  writer  (whoever 
he  was)  to  have  remained  in  Vincennes. 

But  the  reason  why  the  Captain  has  usually  been 
credited  with  the  paternity  is,  that,  in  the  "revised" 
'Journal,  after  the  ending  of  the  entries  .proper,  it  is 
said  by  some  one  —  "This  Journal  was  taken  from 
Major  Bowman  and  revised  by  a  person  who  was  in 
the  expedition.  He  has  kept  it  for  his  own  amuse 
ment,  but  it  does  not  come  near  what  might  be  wrote 
[written]  upon  such  an  extraordinary  occasion,  had 
it  been  handled  by  a  person  who  chose  to  enlarge  upon 
it.  It  afforded  matter  enough  to  treat  on."  .  . 

Now,  that  the  Journal  "was  taken  from  Major 
Bowman"  by  no  means  implies  that  he  wrote  it.  It 
will  be  remembered  that  the  Captain  was  severely 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       767 

burned  when  attempting  to  fire  thirteen  guns,  upon  the 
surrender  of  Fort  Sackville.  He  could  hardly  have 
continued  the  entries  after  that,  as  we  find  them,  in 
the  Journal.  It  is  to  he  observed,  also,  that  what  is 
written  by  the  person  into  whose  possession  the  Journal 
came  (see  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  m) 
is  not  appended  to  the  copy  in  the  Department  of 
State  MSS. 

"I  have  the  honor,"  wrote  Brodhead  from  Fort 
Pitt  to  the  Commander-in-chief  of  the  American 
armies,  "to  enclose  Colonel  Clark's  Journal,  contain 
ing  an  account  of  his  success  against  Governor  Hamil 
ton  of  Detroit  and  the  garrison,  at  Vincennes.  .  .  I 
cannot  conceive  how  he  can  justify  the  murder  of  men 
who  had  surrendered  prisoners ;  and  yet  I  must  con 
fess  that  I  think  Hamilton,  from  his  general  character, 
as  proper  an  object  for  the  gallows  as  could  have  been 
found."  (Brodhead  to  Washington,  May  29,  1779. 
-Department  of  State  MSS.) 

And  the  Fort  Pitt  commander  again,  but  to  an 
other  correspondent,  gave  his  views  concerning  the 
killing  of  the  Indians,  in  these  words: 

"Col.  Clark's  Journal,  containing  an  account  of 
every  transaction  on  his  last  expedition  to  Vincennes, 
is  -in  my  possession.  He  took  four  other  officers 
[besides  Hamilton]  and  about  sixty  privates,  besides 
some  Indians  which  he  killed  and  threw  into  the  river, 
which  is  a  part  of  his  conduct  I  disapprove."  (Broad- 
head  to  John  Heckewelder,  June  3,  1779.) 

The  Journal  spoken  of  by  Brodhead  as  Clark's 
was  the  "Bowman  Journal".  Years  after  it  was  sent 
rJ^  the  Fort  Pitt  commandant  to  Washington,  it  found 
its  way  into  the  Department  of  State,  Washington, 


768  HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

D.  C.,  along  with  other  papers  of  the  General,  where 
it  remains. 

That  Broadhead  should  have  supposed  it  was 
Clark's  own  Journal  is  not  surprising,  as  the  writer's 
name  no  where  appears  upon  the  record. 

The  first  mention  in  print  of  the  Journal  is  by 
Butler  in  his  Kentucky  (p.  8in),  where  he  speaks  of 
it  as  the  "Journal  of  the  march  by  Major  Bowman;" 
so  that  it  was  in  the  possession  of  Butler  (or  he  had 
access  to  it)  as  early  as  1834  —  that  is,  to  the  original 
as  "revised  by  a  person  who  was  in  the  expedition." 

In  publishing  this  Journal  in  the  Louisville  Liter 
ary  News-Letter,  November  21,  1840,  the  editor  says: 

"We  publish  below  a  journal  of  the  expedition 
of  General  [Colonel]  Clark  against  the  British  post 
at  Vincennes  in  1779,  commencing  with  his  march 
from  Kaskaskia.  It  was  kept  by  Joseph  Bowman,  one 
of  the  Captains  in  the  expedition,  and  is  referred  to 
by  Mr.  Butler  in  his  'History  of  Kentucky'  as  'Major 
Bowman's  Journal,'  the  writer  having  subsequently 
held  the  rank  of  Major.  .  . 

"The  original  manuscript  of  this  journal  —  much 
effaced,  and  in  some  places  illegible  —  is  in  possession 
of  the  Kentucky  Historical  Society.  The  Vincennes 
Historical  and  Antiquarian  Society  have  a  copy,  which 
we  transcribed  for  them  and  for  the  use  of  our  friend 
Judge  Law  of  that  place," 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       769, 

NOTE  CXXIII. 
CLARK'S  RETURN  FROM  VINCENNES  TO  KASKASKIA. 

In  his  letter  to  the  Governor  of  Virginia  of  April 
29,  1779  (Jefferson's  Works,  vol.  I,  p.  222n),  Clark 
sums  up  what  was  done  in  Vincennes  just  before 
leaving,  in  these  words :  "Having  more  prisoners  than 
I  knew  what  to  do  with,  I  was  obliged  to  discharge  a 
greater  part  of  them  on  parole.  Mr.  Hamilton,  his 
principal  officers,  and  a  few  soldiers,  I  have  sent  to 
Kentucky,  under  a  convoy  of  Captain  Williams,  in 
order  to  be  conducted  to  you.  After  despatching 
Moires  [Myres]  with  letters  to  you,  treating  with  the 
neighboring  Indians,  etc.,  I  returned  to  this  place 
[Kaskaskia],  leaving  a  sufficient  garrison  at  Vincen 
nes." 

In  his  Memoir — Dillon's  Indiana  (ed.  of  1859), 
p.  164  —  Clark  writes:  "The  water  being  very  high, 
we  soon  reached  the  Mississippi;  and,  the  winds 
favoring  us,  in  a  few  days  we  arrived  safely  at  Kas 
kaskia."  (The  italicising  is  mine.)  Although  this 
statement  runs  counter  to  what  Clark  says  in  his  letter 
to  Mason,  I  am  constrained  to  believe  it  is  true. 

In  his  letter  he  declares  he  spent  much  time  on 
the  way  making  some  observations  at  different  places, 
consequently  he  arrived  too  late  at  Kaskaskia  to  hinder 
a  war  that  had  commenced  between  the  Delawares  (of 
White  river)  and  the  inhabitants.  By  this  he  conveys 
the  idea  that  he  desired  to  hinder  the  hostilities ;  and 
he  gives  a  reason  why  he  could  not.  It  is  the  only 
instance  of  a  seeming  dissimulation  I  have  discovered 
in  his  letter. 

49 


770       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

NOTE  CXXIV. 

CONCERNING  THE  ERROR  THAT  JOHN  TODD  WAS  IN 
CLARK'S  EXPEDITION. 

It  has  been  asserted  by  some  of  the  best  of  the  wri 
ters  of  Western  history  that  John  Todd  was  one  of 
Clark's  soldiers  on  the  expedition  against  the  Illinois ; 
but  this  error  had  its  origin  in  the  following,  which 
is  a  part  of  a  communication  to  James  T.  Morehead 
by  Hon.  R.  Wickliffe  (see  address  of  the  former,  p. 
174.)  :  "It  appears  from  depositions  taken  since  his 
[Todd's]  death  that  he  accompanied  Col.  Clark  (since 
Gen.  Clark),  in  his  expedition  against  Kaskaskia  and 
Vincennes,  and  was  at  the  capture  of  those  places. 
After  the  surrender  of  those  places,  it  is  supposed  that 
he  returned  to  Kentucky;  of  this  there  is  no  record 
or  living  evidence ;  but  it  appears  from  a  letter  written 
by  General  Clark  that  Colonel  Todd  was  appointed  to 
succeed  him  in  the  command  at  Kaskaskia." 

The  persons  who  gave  depositions  to  the  effect 
spoken  of  were  clearly  in  error,  —  taking,  undoubtedly, 
Robert  or  Levi  Todd  for  John,  both  of  whom  were  in 
the  service  under  Colonel  Clark  (Calendar  of  Virginia 
State  Papers,  vol.  I,  p.  ;  also  Butler's  Kentucky,  p. 
53  n.) — tradition  having  assigned  to  Levi,  errone 
ously,  the  position  of  aid  to  the  Colonel.  (See  Note 
XLVIII,  of  this  appendix.)  John  was  in  Kentucky 
county  when  appointed  Lieutenant  of  the  county  of 
Illinois,  but,  as  such  officer,  he  did  not  succeed  to 
the  command  at  Kaskaskia. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       771 


NOTE  CXXV. 

DEATH    OF    WILLIAM    MYRES    AND    CAPTURE  OF    CLARK^S 
JOURNAL. 

In  his  Memoir,  Clark  clearly  states  what  is  erro 
neous  as  to  the  letters  and  other  documents  entrusted 
to  Myres.  "Poor  Myres,  the  express,  who  set  out  on 
the  1 5th  [of  March]  got  killed  on  his  passage,  and  his 
packet  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy;  but  I  had 
been  so  much  on  my  guard,  that  there  was  not  a  sen 
tence  in  it  that  could  be  of  any  disadvantage  to  us  for 
the  enemy  to  know;  and  there  were  private  letters 
from  soldiers  to  their  friends  designedly  written  to 
deceive  in  case  of  such  accidents.  This  was  custo 
mary  with  us,  as  our  expresses  were  frequently  sur 
prised." 

In  all  this  there  is  very  little  truth  except  as  to  the 
killing  of  Myres. 

Clark's  journal  which  had  been  entrusted  to  Myres 
was  taken  to  Detroit  entire;  but  only  that  part  relat 
ing  to  the  capture  of  Hamilton  and  his  garrison  has, 
it  seems  been  preserved  among  the  Haldimand  MSS. 
The  warrant  to  Myres,  Clark's  public  and  private  let 
ters,  copies  of  which  we  have  already  given,  a  letter 
from  Major  Bowman  to  Governor  Henry  of  March 
1 2th,  thanking  him  for  his  (Bowman's)  promotion, 
and  other  documents,  were  likewise  secured  when 
Myres  was  killed,  and  taken  to  Detroit  and  are  now 
in  the  Haldimand  collection.*  In  his  letter  to  Mason 

*  See  Note  CXV  of  this  Appendix  for  some  of  these, 
taken  from  the  copies  made  from  the  originals  by  the  Public 
Archivist,  Douglas  Brymner,  of  Ottawa,  Canada. 


772       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

of  November  igth,  1779,  Clark  only  mentions  that, 
having  despatched  off  Captain  Williams  and  company 
with  Governor  Hamilton,  his  principal  officers,  and  a 
few  [British]  soldiers,  to  the  Falls  of  Ohio  to  be  sent  to 
Williamsburg,"  he  then,  "in  a  few  days"  sent  his  let 
ters  to  the  Virginia  Governor:  he  makes  no  mention 
of  the  killing  of  Myres,  of  the  capture  of  the  papers 
and  documents  in  his  (Myres')  possession,  or  of  his 
writing  again  to  Governor  Henry  on  receipt  of  the 
news.  In  his  Memoir,  however,  Clark  says  [Dillon's 
Indiana  (ed.  of  1859),  p.  159]:  "I  sent  [upon  learning 
the  death  of  Myres]  a  second  dispatch  to  the  Gov 
ernor,  giving  him  a  short  but  full  account  of  what  had 
passed,  and  our  views."  This  was  his  letter  of  April 
29th,  1779. 


NOTE  CXXVI. 

JEFFERSON'S  REPLY  TO  CLARK'S  LETTER  OF  APRIL 
29,  1779. 

As  Patrick  Henry  was  no  longer  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  Clark's  letter  of  April  29,  1779,  from  Kaskaskia 
was  delivered  of  course,  to  his  successor,  Thomas  Jef 
ferson.  It  was  first  published  in  the  Virginia  Gazette, 
of  June  26,  1779,  and  afterward  in  Jefferson's  works, 
Vol.  I,  page  222  n.  The  letter  had  been  entrusted  to 
the  care,  it  is  probable,  of  Mr.  St.  Vrain,  a  resident, 
it  is  believed,  of  the  Illinois,  who  returned  to  Clark 
with  the  Governor's  brief  answer  —  one  that  would 
be  perfectly  understood  by  the  Colonel  but  would  be 
misleading  in  its  most  important  particulars  to  the 
British  should  it  fall  into  their  hands. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      773 

Jefferson's  reply  has  been  preserved  but  in  a 
mutilated  condition.  However,  the  words  torn  off  I 
have  ventured  to  supply.  They  are  inclosed  in  brack 
ets  in  the  following : 

" WILLIAM SBURG,   [June  — ,  1779] . 
"Col.  Geo.  R.  Clark, 

"SiR:  Your  letter  and  verbal  [communications]  by  Mr. 
St.  Vrain  was  received  to-day.  Your  w[ishes  shall  be] 
attended  to.  Much  solicitation  will  be  felt  for  the  result 
of  your  expedition  to  the  Wabash;  it  will,  at  least,  delay 
their  expedition  to  the  frontier,  settlement,  and  if  successful, 
have  an  important  bearing  ultimately  in  establishing  our 
northwestern  boundary. 

"I  am,  Sir,  your  most  obedient, 

TH.  JEFFERSON/'' 

(See  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  p.  2n.) 
The  letter  was  probably  dated  on  or  about  the 
middle  of  June.     See  Jefferson  to  Washington,  from 
Williamsburg,  June  23, —  Jefferson's  Works,  Vol.  I, 

p.  221. 

In  speaking  of  this  letter,  Hinsdale  (The  Old 
Northwest,  p.  153)  says  that  it  was  written  before  the 
issue  of  the  campaign  of  Clark  against  "the  country 
beyond  the  river"  Ohio  was  known  in  Virginia;  and 
Moses  (Illinois:  Historical  and  Statistical,  Vol.  I,  p. 
158)  says  that  it  was  written  "about  the  date  of  the 
inception  of  the  expedition."  The  Hon.  Henry  Pirtle, 
in  giving  the  communication  in  his  "Introductory"  in 
Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  uses  these  words; 
"The  following  letter  of  Mr.  Jefferson  shows  his  an 
ticipation  of  the  importance  of  this  expedition  [of 
Clark  to  the  Illinois]."  Other  writers  have  fallen  into 
the  same  error;  while  William  Wirt  Henry  wrestles 
with  the  subject  in  this  wise  (Life  of  Patrick  Henry 


774  HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Vol.  I,  p.  588  n)  :  "As  Jefferson  was  taken  into  the 
counsels  of  Governor  Henry  while  planning  this 
[Clack's]  expedition,  this  letter  throws  a  strong  light 
upon  the  motives  leading  to  it,  which  were  not  simply 
the  protection  of  Kentucky."  The  letter  itself  bears 
intrinsic  evidence  of  having  been  written  to  Clark  in 
the  Illinois  by  Jefferson  as  Governor.  The  Colonel's 
letter  was  of  such  importance  that  it  was  sent  by  an 
express  which  would  not  have  been  the  case  had  it 
been  intended  for  Jefferson  as  a  private  citizen;  be 
sides,  it  evidently  needed  what  it  received  —  an  imme 
diate  reply.  Clark's  wishes  would  naturally  be  sent 
to  the  Virginia's  Chief  Executive.  St.  Vrain  was, 
probably,  a  citizen  of  Kaskaskia.*  Jefferson,  even  if  he 
were  at  Williamsburg,  would  scarcely  have  informed 
Clark  that  his  wishes  would  "be  attended  to,"  unless 
he  (Jefferson)  had  occupied  the  Executive  chair  at  the 
time.  There  is  no  evidence  extant  that  Clark  wrote 
anything  to  Jefferson  after  starting  upon  his  expedi 
tion  simply  because  of  the  friendship  existing  between 
them.  All  his  letters  to  him  while  upon  the  expedition, 
that  have  been  discovered,  were  a  part  of  his  (Clark's) 
official  correspondence.  Besides,  it  is  to  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  subject  of  the  northwest  boundary  of  the 
United  States  had  only  just  then  received  public  at 
tention.  An  expedition  from  the  Illinois  to  the  Wabash 
simply,  could  have  no  important  bearing  —  ultimately 
in  establishing  this  boundary ;  but  if  continued  to  De- 

*  A  place  called  "St.  Vrain"  is  mentioned  in  Mason's 
Early  Chicago  and  Illinois  (p.  158),  being  on  the  Kaskaskia 
river  a  short  distance  above  Kaskaskia,  years  after;  and  in 
the  same  work  (p.  160),  is  mentioned  the  brothers  St.  Vrain. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       775 

troit  and  if  successful,  the  result  would  prove  highly 
beneficial. 


NOTE  CXXVIL 

CONCERNING    CLARK/S    SECOND    MARCH    TO   VINCENNES. 

"An  expedition,"  wrote  Col.  Montgomery,  Feb. 
22,  1783,  (See  Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol. 
Ill,  p.  441),  "being  already  planned  (or,  rather,  a 
maneuvre)  to  prevent  the  enemy  taking  the  field  and 
distressing  the  frontiers,  —  I  was  ordered  to  conduct 
the  troops  by  water  to  Vincennes,  on  the  Wabash, 
Colonel  Clark  crossing  by  land  to  that  post  with  a 
small  escort."  Clark,  in  his  Memoir — Dillon's  Indi 
ana  (ed  of  1859),  says:  "Early  in  June,  Colonel 
Montgomery  was  dispatched  by  water  with  the  whole 
of  our  stores :  Major  Bowman  marched  the  remainder 
of  our  troops  by  land.  Myself,  with  a  party  of  horse, 
reached  Vincennes  in  four  days,  where  the  whole 
safely  "arrived  a  short  time  after."  What  Clark  here 
states  is  virtually  corroborated  by  a  report  which 
reached  De  Peyster  at  Michilimackinac  some  time 
after  the  marching  of  Major  Bowman. 


NOTE  CXXVIII. 

WHY  CLARK   MAS   ANXIONS  TO   MARCH   AGAINST 
DETROIT. 

"In  a  few  days  (after  the  arrival  at  Kaskaskia  of 
County-Lientenant  [T\od],  Colonel  Montgomery  ar 
rived.  To  my  mortification  I  found  he  had  not  half 
the  men  I  expected.  Immediately  receiving  a  letter 


776       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

from  Colonel  sBowman  with  fresh  assurances  of  a 
considerable  reinforcement  [the  officers  in  general  be 
ing  anxious  for  the  expedition  (against  Detroit)],  I 
resolved  to  rendezvous  [at  Vincennes],  according  to 
appointment ;  and,  if  not  deceived  by  the  Kentuckians, 
I  should  still  be  able  to  complete  my  design,  as  I  only 
wanted  men  sufficient  to  make  me  appear  respect 
able  in  passing  through  [the  territory]  of  the 
savages,  by  which  means  I  could  on  the  march  com 
mand  those  friendly  at  my  ease,  and  defy  my  enemies. 
Three  hundred  men  at  this  time  were  sufficient  to  re 
duce  the  garrison  at  Detroit,  as  the  new  works  there 
were  not  complete  nor  could  be  according  to  the  plan 
before  my  arrival.  The  gentlemen  of  Detroit  were 
not  idle  (although  having  sufficient  reason  to  be  con 
vinced  that  they  were  in  no  danger  from  the  Depart 
ment  of  Pittsburgh)  as  they  were  always  suspicious 
of  my  attacking  them,  being  sensible  of  my  growing 
interest  among  the  savages. 

"In  order  to  give  themselves  more  time  to  fortify, 
they  would  make  some  diversion  on  the  Illinois.  They 
also  engaged  a  considerable  number  of  their  savages 
to  make  an  attempt  on  Vincennes.  Those  Indians 
that  had  declared  for  the  American  interest,  in  order 
to  show  their  zeal,  sent  word  to  them  that  if  they  had 
a  mind  to  fight  the  Bostonians  at  Vincennes,  they  must 
first  cut  their  way  through  them,  as  they  were  Big 
Knives  too.  This  effectually  stopped  their  operation. 
Knowing  that  the  expedition  depended  entirely  on  the 
Kentuckians  turning  out,  I  began  to  be  suspicious  of 
a  disappointment  on  hearing  of  their  marching  against 
the  Shawanese  towns."  *  .  .  .  (Clark,  to  Mason 
—  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois,  pp.  85,  86. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       777 


NOTE  CXXIX. 

JEFFERSON    INFORMS    WASHINGTON    OF    CLARK^S    MEDI 
TATED    ATTACK    AGAINST   DETROIT   AND   OF    ITS 
ABANDONMENT. 

"It  is  possible  you  may  have  heard,"  wrote  Jef 
ferson,  February  loth,  1780,  to  Washington,  "that  in 
the  course  of  last  summer  an  expedition  was  meditated 
by  our  Colonel  Clark,  against  Detroit;  that  he  had 
proceeded  so  far  as  to  rendezvous  a  considerable  body 
of  Indians,  I  believe,  four  or  five  thousand,  at  Vin- 
cennes,  but  being  disappointed  in  the  number  of  whites 
he  expected,  and  not  choosing  to  rely  principally  on 
the  Indians,  he  was  obliged  to  decline  it."  (Jefferson's 
Works,  vol.  I,  p.  239.)  There  can  be  do  doubt  that 
the  number  of  Indians  who  would  have  gone  with 
Clark  is  here  greatly  overestimated. 


NOTE  CXXX. 

PIANKESHAW    DEED    TO    COLONEL    CLARK. 

"By  the  Tobacco's  Son,  Grand  Chief  of  all  the  Pianke- 
shaw  Nations  and  of  all  the  Tribes,  Grand  Door  to  the 
Wabash  as  ordered  by  the  Master  of  Life,  holding  the  Toma 
hawk  in  one  hand  and  Peace  in  the  other;  judging  the  Na 
tions,  giving  entrance  for  those  that  are  for  Peace,  and 
making  them  a  clear  Road,  etc.  Declaration : 

"Whereas  for  many  years  past  this  once  peaceable  land 
hath  been  put  in  confusion  by  the  English  encouraging  all 
people  to  raise  the  tomahawk  against  the  Big  Knives,  saying 
that  they  were  a  bad  people,  rebellious  and  ought  to  be  put 
from  under  the  sun  and  their  names  to  be  no  more.  — 


778       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"But  as  the  sky  of  our  Councils  was  always  misty  and 
never  clear,  we  still  were  at  a  loss  to  know  what  to  do, 
hoping  that  the  Master  of  Life  would  one  day  or  other  make 
the  sky  clear  and  put  us  in  the  right  road.  He,  taking  pity 
on  us,  sent  a  father  among  us  (Col.  George  Rogers  Clark) 
that  has  cleared  our  eyes  and  made  our  paths  straight,  de 
fending  our  lands,  etc.,  so  that  we  now  enjoy  peace  from  the 
rising  to  the  setting  of  sun ;  and  the  nations  even  to"  the 
heads  of  the  great  river  (meaning  the  Mississippi)  are 
happy  and  will  no  more  listen  to  bad  birds,  but  abide  by 
the  Councils  of  their  great  Father,  a  chief  of  the  Big 
Knives,  that  is  now  among  us.  — 

"And  whereas  it  is  our  desire  that  he  should  long  remain 
among  us,  that  we  may  take  his  counsel,  and  be  happy,  it 
also  being  our  desire  to  give  him  lands  to  reside  on  in  our 
country  that  we  may  at  all  times  speak  to  him.  After  many 
solicitations  to  him  to  make  choise  of  a  tract,  he  choosing 
the  land  adjoining  the  Falls  of  Ohio,  one  the  west  side  of 
said  river. 

"I  do  hereby  in  the  names  of  all  the  great  chiefs  and 
warriors  of  the  Wabash  and  their  allies  declare  that  so  much 
land  at  the  Falls  of  Ohio  contained  in  the  following  bounds, 
to-wit :  Beginning  opposite  the  middle  of  the  first  island 
below  the  Falls,  bounded  upwards  by  the  west  bank  of  the 
river  so  far  as  to  include  two  leagues  and  [a]  half  on  a 
straight  line  from  the  beginning,  thence  at  right  angles  with 
said  line  two  leagues  and  [a]  half  in  breadth  in  all  Its  parts, 
shall  hereafter  and  ever  be  the  sole  property  of  our  great 
father  (Colonel  Clark)  with  all  things  thereto  belonging 
either  alive  or  below  the  Earth,  shall  be  and  is  his,  except 
a  road  through  said  land  to  his  door,  which  shall  remain 
ours,  and  for  us  to  walk  on  to  speak  to  our  father.  All 
nations  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  of  the  sun,  that  are  not 
in  alliance  with  us  are  hereby  warned  to  esteem  the  said 
gift  as  sacred,  and  not  to  make  that  land  taste  of  blood,  that 
all  people  either  at  peace  or  war  may  repair  in  safety  to  get 
counsel  of  our  father.  Whoever  first  darkens  that  land  shall 
no  longer  have  a  name.  This  declaration  shall  forever  be  a 
witness  between  all  nations  and  our  present  great  father,  that 
the  said  lands  are  forever  hereafter  his  property. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      779 

"In  witness  whereof,  I  do  in  the  name  of  all  the  great 
chiefs  and  warriors  of  the  Wabash,  in  open  Council,  affix 
my  mark  and  seal.  Done  at  Vincennes,  this  16th  day  of 
June,  1779.  "FRANCIS,  Son  of  Tobacco." 


NOTE  CXXXI. 

/GENERAL  ORDERS"   ON    HIS   EXPEDITION. 

HEADQUARTERS,  FORT  PATRICK  HENRY, 

VINCENNES,  August  5th,  1779. 
"General  Orders. 

"Lieut.  Colonel  John  Montgomery  of  the  Illinois  bat 
talion  is  to  proceed  with  the  following  detachments  under  his 
command  to  the  Illinois : 

"Detachment  for  Fort  Clark.  —  Captain  John  Williams  (to 
be  joined  by  Captain  Worthington's  company),  Lieutenant 
Brashear,  Lieutenant  Gerault,  Capt.-Lieut.  Harrison  of  artil 
lery,  now  at  Fort  Clark. 

"Detachment  for  Cahokia.  —  Capt.  Richard  McCarty  (to 
be  joined  by  Capt.  Quirk's  company),  Lieutenant  Parrault, 
Lieutenant  Clark. 

"The  Garrison  at  Fort  Patrick  Henry.  —  Captain  Shelby 
(to  be  joined  by  Capt.  Taylor  and  Capt.  Keiler's  companies), 
Lieutenant  Wilson,  Ensign  Williams,  Capt.  Robert  Todd  (to 
be  joined  by  Capt.  Evan's  company),  Lieutenant  Dalton  of 
artillery,  Ensign  Slaughter. 

"The  officers  of  the  artillery  at  the  different  posts  and 
garrisons  are  to  take  charge  of  the  artillery  stores,  etc.,  be 
longing  to  that  Department. 

"Major  Joseph  Bowman  is  to  proceed  with  the  recruiting 
parties  and  to  have  the  direction  thereof.  The  general  officers 
out  recruiting  are  to  make  reports  to  him  and  receive  orders 
and  instructions  from  him. 

"Officers  for  the  recruiting  service.  —  Captains  Quirk, 
Evans,  Taylor,  Worthington,  Keller ;  Lieutenants  Roberts, 
Crochett,  Calvit;  Ensign  Montgomery. 


780       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"Captain  Robert  George  of  the  artillery,  Lieutenant 
Robertson  of  the  same,  with  their  company,  go  to  the  Falls 
of  the  Ohio  with  the  Commander-in-chief,  where  Head 
quarters  are  to  be  established. 

"Captain  Leonard  Helm  is  appointed  Indian  Agent  for 
Fort  Patrick  Henry  and  the  Department  of  the  Wabash. 

"M.  Gamelin  of  Wea  is  to  fall  under  his  [Capt.  Helm's] 
Department  and  to  make  report  to  Headquarters  at  the  Falls 
of  the  Ohio,  or  to  Kaskaskia  to  Lieut.  Colonel  Montgomery 
or  other  officers  commanding  [there]  for  the  time  being,  and 
is  to  follow  such  instructions  as  he  shall  receive  from  myself 
or  any  other  his  superior  officer. 

"Captain  Linctot  will  appoint  an  assistant  for  the  upper 
part  of  the  Mississippi  in  the  Indian  Department,  near  the 
Dogs  Plains  [Prairie  du  Chien],  provided  the  appointment 
be  approved  of  by  Colonel  Montgomery  or  the  commanding 
officer  [at  Fort  Clark]  for  the  time  being. 

"GEO.  R.  CLARK. 

"[Colonel  of  the  Illinois  battalion  and  Commander-in- 
chief  of  the  Virginia  forces  in  the  Western  Department]." 
(Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Pepers,  vol.  I,  pp.  324,  325.) 


NOTE  CXXXII. 

FINAL    ARRANGEMENTS     BEFORE     LEAVING    VINCENNES 
FOR  THE  FALLS. 

Says    Clark    in    his    Memoir — (Dillon's   Indiana 
(ed.  of  1859),  P-  l67)  : 

"The  business,  from  the  first,  had  been  so  con 
ducted  as  to  make  no  [a]  disadvantageous  impression 
on  the  enemy  in  case  of  a  disappointment,  as  they  could 
never  know  whether  we  really  had  a  design  on  Detroit 
or  only  a  finesse  to  amuse  them,  which  latter  would 
appear  probable.  Arranging  things  to  the  best  ad 
vantage  was  now  my  principal  study.  The  troops  were 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      781 

divided  betwen  Vincennes,  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia,  and 
the  Falls  of  the  Ohio.  Colonel  Montgomery  was  ap 
pointed  to  the  command  of  the  Illinois ;  Major  Bow 
man  to  superintend  the  recruiting  business ;  a  number 
of  officers  were  appointed  to  that  service ;  and  myself 
to  take  up  my  quarters  at  the  Falls  as  the  most  con 
venient  spot  to  have  an  eye  over  the  whole."  By  this 
it  seems  Clark  never  learned  the  particulars  concerning 
the  efforts  made  by  Lernoult  at  Detroit  and  by  De 
Peyster  at  Michilemackinac  to  repel  (what  they  con 
sidered  was  certain)  his  attack  on  Detroit. 


NOTE  CXXXIII. 


FALLS   OF   THE   OHIO. 

The  "Falls'  Fort"  as  Hamilton  styles  it  (it  had 
received  no  particular  name)  was  a  fortification  "con 
sisting  of  a  parallelogram  of  double  log  cabins,  about 
two  hundred  feet  in  length  and  one  hundred  in  breadth 
with  an  inner  court  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
long  and  fifty  feet  wide.  Each  of  the  four  corners  was 
a  block  house,  with  walls  projecting  along  the  lines  of 
the  cabins  and  serving  the  purpose  of  bastions.  On 
each  of  the  long  sides  were  eighteen  cabins,  while 
there  were  eight  on  each  of  the  short  sides,  making 
fifty-two  in  all,  and  affording  shelter  for  two  or  three 
hundred  persons. 

The  fort  was  made  of  round  logs  cut  from  the  sur 
rounding  forest,  and  covered  with  rough  boards  riven 
by  hand.  Wherever  there  was  a  chimney,  it  was  made 


782       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

of  wood  lined  with  flat  stones  at  the  bottom  for  a  fire 
place,  and  the  middle  was  daubed  with  clay  thence  to 
the  top  to  prevent  ignition.  The  rooms  had  dirt  floors, 
and  there  were  no  windows  except  holes  in  the  walls, 
as  much  for  the  use  of  the  rifle  as  for  light."  (R.  T. 
Durrett,  in  the  Louisville  Courier- Journal,  August  2, 
1883.). 


NOTE  CXXXIV. 

THE  PRESENTATION  OF  A  SWORD  TO  CLARK  BY  VIRGINIA. 

ALSO  CONCERNING  THE  CREDIT  DUE  OLIVER 

POLLOCK  FOR  HIS  SACRIFICES  IN  AID 

OF  THE  EXPEDITION. 

" WILLIAM SBURG,  IN  COUNCIL,  Sept.  4th,  1779. 

"Lieutenant  Colonel  George  Rogers  Clark : 

"SiR^:  I  have  the  honor  to  inform  you  that  by  Captain 
Rogers  I  have  sent  the  sword  which  was  purchased  by  the 
Governor  to  be  presented  to  you,  by  order  of  the  General 
Assembly,  as  a  proof  of  their  approbation  of  your  great  and 
good  conduct  and  gallant  behavior.  I  heartily  wish  a  better 
[one]  could  have  been  procured,  but  it  was  thought  the  best 
that  could  be  purchased ;  and  was  bought  of  a  gentleman  who 
had  used  it  but  a  little,  and  judged  it  to  be  elegant  and  costly. 
I  sincerely  congratulate  you  on  your  successes,  and  wish  you 
a  continuation  of  them  and  a  happy  return  to  your  friends 
and  country;  and  am,  Sir,  with  great  regard,  your  most 
ob't  serv't, 

"JOHN  PAGE,  Lt.  Gov." 

A  number  of  traditions  concerning  the  presenta 
tion  of  this  sword  to  the  Colonel — all  more  or  less  de 
void  of  truth  —  have  found  their  way  into  print. 

"After  his  conquest  of  the  Illinois,  he  [Clark]  was 
voted  a  sword  by  the  State  of  Virginia.  The  bearer  of 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       783 

it  met  the  grave  and  discontented  hero  on  the  bank  of 
the  Wabash.    He  was  anxiously  waiting  for  the  news 
that  the  House  of  Delegates  had  passed  his  accounts, 
and  had  voted  money  to  pay  them,  to  enable  him  to 
make  good  his  engagements,  on  sudden  emergencies, 
for  supplies  to  his  men.     He  was  disappointed.     He 
took  the  sword  —  drew  it  from  its  scabbard,  and  plac 
ing  the  point  to  the  ground,  thrust  it  deep  into  the  soil 
he  had  conquered,  and  broke  it  off  by  the  hilt.    Throw 
ing  away  the  glittering  handle,  he  said,  "I  asked  Vir 
ginia  for  bread,  and  she  sent  me  a  sword.,  "     (Denny's 
Journal,  p.  218.)     But  the  bearer  of  the  sword  did  not 
meet  Clark  on  the  Wabash  at  all.     He  was  found  at 
his  headquarters  at  the  Falls   (Louisville).     He  was 
not  "anxiously  waiting  for  the  news  that  the  House  of 
Delegates   had   passed   his   accounts,   and   had   voted 
money  to  pay  them."     Instead  of  being  disappointed 
when  the  sword  came,  he  was  highly  elated.     He  did 
not  break  the  weapon  but  carefully  preserved  it  as  a 
most  precious  gift. 

As  to  the  measure  of  credit  due  Oliver  Pollock  in 
sustaining  Clark,  it  may  be  said  that  hitherto  it  has 
been  unjustly  overshadowed  by  praise  of  M.  Vigo  for 
his  services.  In  Clark's  letter  to  the  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  of  April  29,  1779,  from  Kaskaskia,  the  Colonel 
was  not  mistaken  in  his  belief  that  some  of  the  mer 
chants  who  advanced  considerable  amounts  would 
suffer;  for  such  was  the  case,  particularly  with  Vigo. 
[Beckwith,  in  Reynolds'  Illinois  (ed.  of  1887),  p.  423]. 
Beckwith  says : .  "He  [Vigo]  turned  out  his  merchan 
dise  to  supply  Clark's  destitute  soldiers."  But  Clark's 
soldiers  were  by  no  means  destitute.  Vigo  would  as 
sist  Clark  —  particularly  to  aid  him  in  his  proposed 


784       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

movements  against  Detroit.  That  writer  adds  that  he 
(Vigo)'  "sustained  the  credit  of  the  Virginia  conti 
nental  money  by  taking  it  at  par  or  guaranteeing  its 
redemption  at  its  face  to  those  who  exchanged  their 
provisions  or  supplies  for  it.  His  advances  or  liabil 
ities  incurred  in  this  way,  amounted  to  more  than 
twenty  thousand  dollars,  which,  with  Hamiltoia's  con 
fiscations  at  Vincennes  and  losses  through  reprisals  of 
Indians  hostile  to  his  side  of  the  war,  reduced  him  to 
poverty;"  that  is,  he  did  his  best  to  sustain  the  Vir 
ginia  money,  but  could  only  do  so  to  the  extent  of  the 
amounts  he  took  himself  or  guaranteed.  Writers  of 
Western  history  generally  overrate  Vigo's  sacrifices. 
For  what  he  did  to  further  the  interests  of  America 
he  should  receive  praise  commensurate  with  those  sac 
rifices  ;  unfortunately,  however,  the  eulogies  bestowed 
upon  him  have,  as  we  have  before  hinted,  to  a  great 
extent  hitherto  obscured  what  was  due  in  a  greater  de 
gree  to  Oliver  Pollock.  John  Law  (Colonial  History 
of  Vincennes,  p.  21)  declares  that  the  whole  credit  of 
Clark's  conquest  belongs  to  two  men :  "Gen.  George 
Rogers  Clark  and  Col.  Francis  Vigo."  This  of  course, 
is  absurd.  Between  the  two  should  be  named  Patrick 
Henry,  Oliver  Pollock  and  Pierre  Gibault:  after  the 
five,  Clark's  officers  and  men,  General  Hand  and  others 
are  to  be  mentioned.  But  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that,  next  to  the  general  planning  and  shrewdness  dis 
played  by  Colonel  Clark,  that  which  most  conspired 
to  secure  success  was  the  war  between  England  and 
France  and  the  alliance  of  the  latter  with  the  United 
States.  (See  further  as  to  Pollock,  Mason's  Early 
Chicago  and  Illinois,  pp.  321,  323,  343,  348,  353,  358). 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      785 


NOTE  CXXXV. 

GEORGE   MASON'S   ANXIETY  TO    MAKE   GOOD   HIS   PLEDGE 
TO  CLARK. 

By  the  following,  it  will  be  seen  how  anxious  was 
the  patriotic  Mason  that  his  and  his  two  friends'  prom 
ises,  after  the  success  of  Clark  and  his  own  force  had 
been  assured,  should  be  carried  out: 

"The  Commonwealth  of  Virginia  hath  yet  given 
no  titles  to  any  lands  on  the  northwest  side  of  the 
Ohio;  but  the  public  faith  stands  pledged  to  Colonel 
Clarke  and  his  officers  and  men  (in  all  about  one  hun 
dred  and  eighty)  who  reduced  the  British  posts  of 
Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes,  for  a  liberal  reward  in  the 
lands  they  conquered."  [George  Mason's  Plan  of 
Cession  of  the  Territory  of  the  Northwest  to  the 
United  States,  dated  July  27,  1780.  (Kate  Mason 
•Rowland's  Mason,  vol.  I,  p.  365.)] 


NOTE  CXXXVI. 

FOR  WHOM  CLARK  HELD  THE  COUNTRY  HE  CONQUERED  J 

AND  IN   WHAT  WAY  VIRGINIA  PROFITED 

BY    THE    CONQUEST. 

"In  1778,  .  .  .  General  George  Rogers  Clark, 
with  the  authority  of  Virginia,  advanced  into  the 
Northwest  with  a  little  army  of  Kentuckians ;  and,  as 
the  result  of  a  series  of  remarkable  exploits,  which  fig-' 
ure  among  the  most  romantic  incidents  in  American 
history,  seized  Kaskaskia,  Cahokia  and  Vincennes  and 
50 


786       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

held  the  disputed  territory  for  the  United  States  till 
the  close  of  the  war."  (R.  G.  Thwaites:  The  Story 
of  Wisconsin,  p.  109.) 

It  has  already  been  shown  that  Colonel  Clark  had, 
in  his  "little  army,"  very  few  Kentuckians,  properly 
so  called.  His  conquests  were  not  only  under  the  au 
thority  of  Virginia,  but  they  inured  at  once  to  that 
State,  which  very  soon  began  to  exercise  civil  juris 
diction  over  the  conquered  territory,  continuing  its 
rule  until  all  its  claims  were  ceded  in  1784  to  the 
United  States.  Strictly  speaking,  Virginia  held  the 
disputed  territory  until  the  close  of  the  war  rather 
than  Clark,  whose  military  authority  soon  became  more 
nominal  than  real  after  the  final  conclusion  of  his  ex 
pedition  and  his  return  to  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio;  as 
all  Virginia  troops  under  his  orders  were  withdrawn 
from  the  various  posts  north  of  that  river  in  little  over 
a  year,  although  he  retained  command  until  May  21, 
1783,  of  the  Western  Department.* 

The  immediate  and  direct  profit  to  Virginia  aris 
ing  out  of  the  conquest  was  the  increased  security  it 
gave  to  her  Kentucky  settlements ;  but  it  must  not 
for  a  moment  be  supposed  that  when  Colonel  Clark 
finally  made  his  headquarters  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio, 
those  settlements  were  out  of  danger;  far  from  it. 

In  this  connection  it  may  be  well  to  record  what 
Clark,  in  June,  1783,  says  concerning  affairs  at  Vin- 
cennes  from  the  time  the  Americans  first  gained  pos 
session  in  1778  to  1781.  The  reader  will  find  no  diffi 
culty  in  noticing  his  errors  as  to  the  years  1778,  and 

*  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  any  evidence  that  any 
military  order  was  issued  by  Clark  or  his  officers  after  1781, 
directly  affecting  the  Illinois  or  Wabash  towns. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      787 

1779,  from  what  has  already  been'  given  in  our  nar 
rative.  As  to  1781,  we  give  the  following  which  shows 
conclusively  that  Vincennes  was  not  abandoned  in 
that  year :  "The  enemy  are  approaching  Vincennes 
and  fortifying  themselves  at  the  Miami  [head  of  the 
Maumee] ;  so  the  inhabitants  of  Vincennes  have  pe 
titioned  me  for  an  officer  and  men  to  uphold  the  honor 
of  the  state  there,  with  which  I  have  complied."  (Cap 
tain  George  from  Fort  Jefferson,  February  15,  1781, 
to  Col.  Geo.  Slaughter  at  the  Falls  of  the  Ohio  —  Cal 
endar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  I,  p.  521).  "The 
following  hints  will  sufficiently  point  out  the  cause  of 
every  article  of  life  on  the  Wabash  being  raised  to 
so  great  price,  as  charged  in  some  of  the  Western  Ac 
counts  :  On  our  getting  possession  of  Vincennes  in 
1778,  and  gaining  three  or  four  thousand  warriors  to 
the  American  interest  all  commerce  between  that  coun 
try  and  Detroit  immediately  ceased.  The  Chickasaws, 
part  of  the  Cherokees,  and  other  Southern  Indians, 
warmly  attached  to  the  British  interest  rendered  it  ex 
ceedingly  difficult  for  the  merchants  to  get  supplies 
from  the  Mississippi,  as  numbers  of  them  were  cut  off 
on  their  passage  up  the  Ohio  by  the  Indians,  who  had 
been  instructed  by  the  English  to  block  up  that  river  if 
possible.  These  circumstances  caused  every  article  at 
Vincennes  to  rise  at  least  to  four  or  five  prices. 

"The  garrison  kept  at  the  post  was  obliged  to 
receive  its  supplies  from  the  inhabitants  of  the  town, 
who  consisted  of  about  three  hundred  militia,  about 
one-fourth  farmers,  that  scarcely  raised  a  sufficiency 
of  provisions  to  supply  the  inhabitants.  The  British 
on  the  Lakes  sensible  of  our  growing  interest  with 
the  savages,  spared  no  pains  to  regain  them  by  emis- 


788  HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

saries,  which  made  it  necessary  that  the  greatest  atten 
tion  should  be  paid  them  on  our  part.  Consequently, 
numbers  of  savages  were  constantly  at  that  post  coun 
seling.  Agents  were  kept  in  every  quarter  of  their 
settlements  where  we  could  venture  them ;  and  Vin- 
cennes  became,  at  one  time,  the  seat  of  Indian  affairs. 
"Articles  necessary  for  the  solemnity  of  treaties 
and  support  of  troops  were  generally  procured  for  the 
State  by  a  few  merchants  —  Legras,  Bosseron,  Linctot 
and  others  —  whose  zeal  induced  them  to  advance 
their  fortunes  for  the  public  interest.  Governor  Ham 
ilton,  by  his  enemies  in  the  Pittsburgh  country,  being 
informed  there  was  a  great  number  of  disaffected  per 
sons  in  that  quarter  ready  to  join  him,  resolved  to 
make  a  descent  on  that  place,  with  all  the  power  he 
could  raise.  General  Carleton  approved  his  plan,  but 
recommended  it  to  him  first  to  drive  the  rebels  out 
of  the  Illinois  country,  otherwise  they  might  possibly 
step  in  and  take  possession  of  Detroit,  as  he  would 
have  to  leave  it  in  a  defenceless  situation.  After  put 
ting  the  latter  into  execution  he  might  regain  of  the 
Indian  interest,  and  complete  his  force  to  enable  him  to 
execute  his  first  design.  The  attempt  was  daring;  but 
the  prudent  measures  that  gentleman  conducted  him 
self  by  enabled  him  to  get  possession  of  St.  Vincent 
[Vincennes]  without  much  difficulty.  The  season  be 
ing  too  far  advanced,  he  was  obliged  to  take  up  his 
winter  quarters  at  that  place,  and  of  course  disperse 
his  Indian  forces  until  spring.  In  the  meantime  [he] 
got  captured  by  a  superior  force,  which  doubly  revived 
our  interest  in  that  quarter  and  extended  our  influence 
nearly  to  the  walls  of  Detroit;  and  the  great  con 
course  of  people  that  consequently  happened  for  many 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.       789 

months  —  troops,    Indians,    etc.,  —  nearly    caused    a 
famine. 

"The  inhabitants  not  being  able  to  recover  their 
former  plenty,  in  1781  were  obliged  to  abandon  the 
post  for  the  want  of  supplies ;  from  which  moment 
our  interest  with  the  Indians  sunk  as  rapidly  as  we 
had  gained  it,  and  nearly  the  whole  engaged  in  war 
against  us."  (Calendar  of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol. 
Ill,  pp.  501,  502.) 


NOTE  CXXXVIL 

WHAT    CLARK    CONQUERED    AND    THE    RESULTS    OF    HIS 
CONQUESTS. 

William  Frederick  Poole,  LL.  D.,  in  The  Early 
Northwest  (pp.  4,  5),  says:  "The  general  histories  of 
the  United  States  have  been  written  by  Eastern  men, 
and  a  few  of  their  writers  have  been  tall  enough  to 
look  over  the  Appalachian  range  and  see  what  has  hap 
pened  on  the  other  side.  The  story  of  the  Revolution 
ary  War  has  often  been  told  without  a  mention  of  the 
campaigns  of  George  Rogers  Clark,  who,  as  a  Virginia 
partisan  and  with  an  intelligence  and  valor  which  have 
not  been  surpassed  in  ancient  or  modern  warfare, 
captured  from  the  British  the  Northwestern  Terri 
tory/' 

And  thus  R.  G.  Thwaites  (The  Story  of  Wiscon 
sin,  pp.  117,  118)  :  "But  the  Revolutionary  War  closed 
with  the  following  year  [1782]  and  the  entire  North 
west,  under  the  definite  treaty  of  peace  in  1783,  was, 
regardless  of  all  private  claims,  apportioned  to  the 
United  States,  having  been  fairly  won  with  the  sword 


790       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

by  George  Rogers  Clark,  and  kept  for  our  inheritance 
by  the  shrewd  diplomacy  of  Franklin,  Adams  and 
Jay." 

Congress,  in  October,  1780,  as  indicated  by  its  in 
structions  to  Jay,  looked  upon  what  Clark  took  pos 
session  of  —  that  is,  what  he  captured  and  won  —  as 
extending  only  to"the  important  posts  and  settlements 
on  [in]  the  Illinois  and  [on  the]  Wabash."  What  he 
essayed  farther  to  the  northward  and  northwestward 
—  to  what  is  now  Peoria,  Illinois,  and  to  the  present 
Prairie  du  Chien,  Wisconsin  —  was  only  to  make 
friends  of  the  several  Indian  nations  in  those  regions ; 
but  these  savages,  with  few  exceptions,  again  took  up 
the  hatchet,  before  the  close  of  the  war,  against  the 
Americans.  The  British,  who  held  the  important  posts 
of  Detroit  and  Michilimachinac  had  control,  virtually, 
over  much  more  territory  in  the  Northwest  than  was 
reduced  to  American  sway  by  Clark ;  and  this  was 
the  fact  immediately  after  the  conquests  of  the  Col 
onel,  and  continued  until  after  peace  was  declared  be 
tween  the  two  countries. 

A  recent  author  (Hinsdale:  The  Old  Northwest, 
p.  158)  says:  "The  Northwest  had  been  won  by  a 
Virginia  army,  commanded  by  a  Virginia  officer,  put 
in  the  field  at  Virginia's  expense.  Governor  Henry 
had  promptly  announced  the  Conquest  to  the  Virginia 
delegates  in  Congress." 

It  is  evident  this  is  too  sweeping  a  declaration. 
Clark  did  not  win  the  Northwest.  And  that  writer 
had  already  written  (p.  157)  : 

"Clark,  who  probably  did  not  appreciate  the  dif 
ference  between  seizing  Detroit  and  seizing  Kaskaskia, 
was  compelled  to  abandon  the  enterprise,  and  Detroit 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      791 

remained  in  British  hands  at  the  end  of  the  war,  and, 
in  fact,  until  1796.  'Detroit  lost  for  a  few  hundred 
men/  was  his  pathetic  lament  as  he  surrendered  an 
enterprise  that  lay  near  his  heart.  Had  he  been  able 
to  achieve  it,  he  would  have  won  and  held  the  whole 
Northwest. 

"As  it  was  he  won  and  held  the  Illinois  and  the 
Wabash."  .  .  . 

As  to  the  results  of  Clark's  conquest  there  has 
been  much  discussion.  Dr.  Poole  in  his  monograph 
just  cited  says  not  only  that  Clark  "captured  from  the 
British  the  Northwestern  Territory,"  but  that  he  helcl 
"it  until  the  peace  of  1783,"  thereby  securing  "to  this 
nation  the  Mississippi  River  and  the  great  lakes  as 
boundaries."  To  this  he  adds  this  footnote : 

"That,  if  a  right  to  the  said  territory  depended  on 
the  conquests  of  the  British  posts  within  it,  the  United 
States  have  already  ...  by  the  success  of  their 
arms  obtained  possession  of  all  the  important  posts 
and  settlements  on  the  Illinois  and  Wabash,  rescued 
the  inhabitants  from  British  domination,  and  estab 
lished  civil  government  in  its  proper  form  over  them," 
(Instruction  of  Congress  to  Mr.  Jay,  October,  1780, 
Secret  Journals  of  Congress,  II. ,  329.) 

"From  a  full  confidence  that  the  Western  terri 
tory  now  contended  for  lay  within  the  United  States, 
the  British  posts  therein  have  been  reduced  by  our 
citizens,  and  American  government  is  now  exercised 
within  the  same."  (Report  written  by  Mr.  Madison 
entitled  "Facts  and  Observations  in  support  of  the 
several  Claims  of  the  United  States,"  Secret  Journals 
of  Congress,  August,  1782,  III.,  199.  N.  Y.  Hist.  Col- 
lee.,  1878,  p.  139.) 


792       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

"He  [Vergennes]  intended  to  resist  the  claim 
which  the  colonies  had  invariably  advanced  of  push 
ing  their  frontiers  as  far  west  as  the  Mississippi,  .  :  ; 
and  to  leave  the  country  north  of  the  Ohio  to  England, 
as  arranged  by  the  Quebec  Act  of  1774."  (Fitzmau- 
rice's  Life  of  Earl  Shelbourne,  II. ,  169.) 

At  the  date  of  Madison's  Report,  the  "Western 
territory"  then  "contended  for"  included  all  the  region 
of  country  northwest  and  west  of  the  Ohio  to  the 
Mississippi  and  the  Great  Lakes.  But  "the  British 
posts  therein"  had  not  been  "reduced"  as  he  declares — 
only  a  part  of  them  —  by  "our  citizens."  The  strong 
est  of  the  posts,  Detroit  and  Michilimackinac,  had  not 
been  so  "reduced,"  and  the  "American  government" 
was  by  no  means,  "exercised  within  the  same." 

Speculation  has  ever  been  rife  since  the  conquest 
by  Clark  and  his  men,  as  to  its  direct  results. 

"Their  success,"  said  George  Mason,  in  1780,  only 
a  little  over  a  year  after  the  capture  of  Hamilton,  "has 
been  of  great  importance  to  the  United  States,  by  fix 
ing  garrisons  behind  the  Indian  towns  and  deterring 
them  from  sending  their  warriors  far  from  home,  and 
by  drawing  from  the  British  to  the  American  interest 
several  tribes  of  Indians;  the  frontiers  of  the  middle 
states  have  been  more  effectually  protected  than  they 
would  have  been  by  ten  times  the  number  of  troops 
stationed  upon  the  Ohio;  and  by  putting  Virginia  in 
possession  of  these  posts,  they  have  not  only  taken 
them  out  of  the  hands  of  the  British,  but  have  pre 
vented  the  Spaniards  from  possessing  themselves  of 
them ;  which,  but  for  that  circumstance,  they  would 
most  undoubtedly  have  done  last  year  [1779]  m  their 
expedition  up  the  Mississippi,  when  they  took  posses- 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      793 

sion  of  every  other  British  post  on  that  river ;  in  which 
case  that  country  [that  is,  the  Illinois]  would  have 
been  lost  to  the  United  States  and  left  to  be  disputed 
between  Spain  and  Great  Britain,  upon  [their  holding] 
a  treaty  of  peace.  The  possession  of  these  posts  has 
prevented  Spain  from  meddling  with  the  country  on 
this  [the  east]  side  of  the  Mississippi  above  the  mouth 
of  the  Ohio  and  will  afford  a  strong  argument  in  favor 
of  our  claim,  upon  [our  holding]  a  treaty  with  Great 
Britain."  [George  Mason,  July  27,  1780,  in  his  "Plan 
for  a  Cession  of  the  Northwest  Territory  to  the  United 
States."  (Kate  Mason  Rowland's  Mason,  vol.  I,  p. 

365.)] 

Many  writers  besides  Dr.  Poole  have  declared 
that  the  territory  northwest  of  the  Ohio  was  secured 
to  the  Republic  at  the  treaty  of  peace  with  Great 
Britain  and  our  western  boundary  fixed  at  the  Missis 
sippi  because  of  the  reduction  of  the  posts  of  the  Illi 
nois  and  of  those  upon  the  Wabash.  It  is  certain  that 
Clark's  success  and  the  continuance  of  possession  on 
part  of  Virginia  of  what  he  had  really  conquered, 
until  the  close  of  the  war,  were  powerful  arguments  in 
upholding  the  claim  of  the  United  States  to  the  West 
ern  country ;  but  is  it  not  true  that  England's  jeal 
ousy  of  Spain,  who  laid  claim  to  this  vast  territory, 
(and  of  France  as  well,  who  also  coveted  this  extensive 
region)  and  all  other  facts  adduced  by  the  Commis 
sioners  of  the  United  States,  secured  what  Clark's 
conquests  had  not  been  able  to,  in  the  negotiations 
which  brought  peace  to  our  country  ?  An  Indiana  his 
torian  already  cited  says: 

"By  it  [Clark's  Conquest]  the  whole  territory  now 
covered  by  the  three  great  States  of  Indiana,  Illinois 


794       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

and  Michigan,  was  added  to  the  Union,  and  so  ad 
mitted  to  be  by  the  Commissioners  on  the  part  of  Great 
Britain,  at  the  preliminaries  for  the  settlement  of  the 
treaty  of  peace  in  1783;  and  but  for  this  very  conquest 
the  boundaries  of  our  territories  west,  would  have  been 
the  Ohio,  instead  of  the  Mississippi,  and  so  acknowl 
edged  and  admitted  both  by  our  own  and  the  British 
Commissioners  at  that  conference."  (Lazv's  Vin- 
cennes,  pp.  21,  22.)  But  an  examination  of  this  whole 
subject  does  not  warrent  the  conclusion  arrived  at  by 
that  writer. 

Draper,  in  Appleton's  Cyclopaedia  of  American 
Biography  blindly  follows  Law ;  but  Henry  Pirtle  in 
his  "Introductory"  to  Clark's  Campaign  in  the  Illinois 
is  more  guarded:  "But  for  this  conquest  made  by 
Colonel  Clark  for  the  United  States  —  and  particu 
larly  for  Virginia  —  in  the  midst  of  the  terrible  strug 
gle  with  England,  the  boundary  of  our  land,  conquered 
in  the  revolution  from  Great  Britain,  would,  in  all 
probability  [the  italicising  is  ours],  have  been  the  east 
ern  bank  of  the  Ohio,  or  the  Allegheny  mountains, 
instead  of  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Mississippi." 

Says  Mr.  R.  G.  Thwaites  in  the  Collections  of  the 
State  Historical  Society  of  Wisconsin,  vol.  XI,  p.  114 
n :  "While  due  credit  should  be  given  to  Clark  for 
his  daring  and  successful  undertaking,  we  must  not 
forget  that  England's  jealousy  of  Spain,  and  shrewd 
diplomacy  on  the  part  of  America's  peace  plenipoten 
tiaries,  were  factors  even  more  potent  in  winning  the 
Northwest  for  the  United  States." 

One  of  the  historians  before  cited  reasons  thus: 

"It  is  not  easy  to  tell  what  were  the  decisive  ar 
guments  in  this  Western  controversy.  It  is  often  said, 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      795 

and  particularly  by  Western  writers,  that  the  issue 
turned  mainly  on  the  George  Rogers  Clark  conquest. 
This  view  rests  on  tradition  rather  than  on  historical 
evidence,  and  I  venture  the  opinion  that  it  is  largely 
erroneous.  No  man,  at  least,  can  read  the  reports  on 
the  national  boundaries  submitted  to  Congress  without 
seeing  that  far  more  reliance  was  laid,  by  the  commit 
tees  that  prepared  them,  on  the  Colonial  charters  than 
on  Clark's  great  achievement.  The  report  of  August 
1 6,  1782,  urges  the  argument:  'The  very  country  in 
question  hath  been  conquered  through  the  means  of 
the  common  labors  of  the  United  States  [but  it  was 
only  a  small  part  of  the  country;  and  it  can  scarcely 
be  said,  with  truth,  that  what  was  conquered,  was 
through  the  means  of  the  common  labors  of  the 
United  States.  It  was  so  nearly  a  Virginia  conquest, 
pure  and  simple,  that  it  ought,  with  justice,  to  be 
called  such.]  For  a  considerable  distance  beyond  the 
Alleghany  Mountains,  and  particularly  on  the  Ohio, 
American  citizens  are  settled  at  this  day  .... 
who  will  be  thrown  back  within  the  power  of  Great 
Britain  if  the  Western  territory  is  surrendered  to  her.' 
"But  the  same  report  contains  page  after  page 
of  arguments  based  on  the  charters  and  on  colonial 
history.  It  was  indeed  most  fortunate  that  the  Vir 
ginia  troops  were  in  possession  of  the  Illinois  and  the 
Wabash  at  the  close  of  the  war,  but  there  is  no  reason 
to  think  that  the  Clark  conquest,  separate  and  apart 
from  the  colonial  titles,  ever  would  have  given  the 
United  States  the  Great  West.  Writing  to  Secretary 
Livingston,  the  American  commissioners  give  color  to 
the  idea  that  the  decision  turned  on  the  charters  and 
not  on  the  conquest.  They  say  the  Court  of  Great 


796       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

Britain  'claimed  not  only  all  the  lands  in  the  Western 
country  and  on  the  Mississippi,  which  were  not  ex 
pressly  included  in  our  charters  and  government,  but 
also  all  such  lands  within  them  as  remained  ungranted 
by  the  King  of  Great  Britain.'  'It  would  be  endless,3 
they  add,  'to  enumerate  all  the  discussions  and  argu 
ments  on  the  subject.'  It  is  highly  probable  that  the 
British  ministry,  seeing  that  the  West  would  go  to 
Spain  if  not  to  the  United  States,  preferred  to  give  it 
the  latter  direction.  Moreover,  the  Clark  conquest 
was  much  more  potent  in  keeping  the  West  from  fall 
ing  into  the  hands  of  Spain  than  in  wresting  it  from 
the  hands  of  Great  Britain."  (Hinsdale:  The  Old 
Northwest,  pp.  183,  184.) 

But  upon  one  point  all  writers  of  Western  history 
who  have  mentioned  the  success  of  Clark  and  his  men 
in  the  conquest  of  the  Illinois  and  Wabash  towns 
agree :  they  all  praise  the  sagacity,  valor,  perseverance 
and  patriotism  displayed. 

"Of  this  expedition,"  says  an  Indiana  historian,  in 
speaking  of  the  one  against  Vincennes,  although  at  the 
same  time  having  in  his  mind  also  the  one  against  Kas- 
kaskia,  "of  its  result,  of  its  importance,  of  the  merits 
of  those  engaged  in  it,  of  their  bravery,  of  their  skill, 
of  their  prudence,  of  their  success,  a  volume  would  not 
be  sufficient  for  the  details.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that,  in 
my  opinion,  —  and  I  have  accurately  and  critically 
weighed  and  examined  all  the  results  produced  by 
any  contests  in  which  we  were  engaged  during  the 
revolutionary  war,  —  for  bravery,  for  hardships  en 
dured,  for  skill  and  consummate  tact  and  prudence  on 
the  part  of  the  commander,  obedience,  discipline,  and 
love  of  country  on  the  part  of  his  followers;  for  the 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      797 

immense  benefits  acquired,  and  signal  advantages  ob 
tained  by  it  for  the  whole  Union,  it  was  second  to  no 
enterprise  undertaken  during  that  struggle."  .  .  . 
(John  Law:  Colonial  History  of  Vincennes,  p.  21.) 
"When  we  consider  the  small  force  employed,  the 
boldness  of  the  enterprise,  the  brilliancy  of  its  execu 
tion,  and  the  vast  consequences  which  have  resulted 
from  it,  this  expedition  may  well  challenge  all  history 
for  a  parallel."  (Henry's  Patrick  Henry,  vol.  I,  p. 


"With  respect  to  the  magnitude  of  its  design," 
says  Dillon  History  of  Indiana,  pp.  114,  115),  "the 
valor  and  perseverence  with  which  it  was  carried  on, 
and  the  momentous  results  which  were  produced  by  it, 
this  expedition  stands  without  a  parallell  in  the  early 
annals  of  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi." 


NOTE  CXXXVIII. 

CLARK'S  IDEA  OF  THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION  IN  KEN 
TUCKY  IN  1783. 

"Prejudice  and  party  disputes  and  the  want  of 
aids  from  Government  have,  in  a  great  measure  been 
the  occasion  of  reducing  this  Department  to  a  defence 
less  state,  at  a  time  when  we  might  suppose  they  [the 
people  of  Kentucky]  were  rising  superior  to  the  enemy 
they  have  to  contend  with.  .  .  Emmissaries  are 
among  them,  dividing  their  councils,  and  destroying 
their  interest  at  the  seat  of  Government.  [These  are] 
ready  to  take  advantage  of  the  first  opportunity  to 


798      HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

separate  them  from  the  State  they  live  in  for  the  ad 
vantage  of  a  few  individuals,  who,  at  present,  rejoice 
at  every  misfortune  they  meet  with."  (Clark  to  the 
Board  of  Commissioners  to  Settle  Western  Accounts, 
February  25,  1783  —  Calendar  of  Virginia  State 
Papers,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  448,  449.) 


NOTE  CXXXIX. 
AS  TO  VIRGINIA'S  SUBSEQUENT  TREATMENT  OF  CLARK. 

Virginia  did  not  neglect  or  refuse  to  settle  Clark's 
accounts  made  necessary  because  of  his  expeditions 
to  Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes.  At  his  dismissal  from 
the  "State  Line"  service,  he  had  no  cause  of  complaint 
and  made  none.*  No  suits  were  afterward  brought 
against  him  by  private  parties  for  money  or  necessaries 
supplied  his  army  by  negotiations  or  impressment  while 
engaged  in  the  West  either  as  a  Virginia  Lieutenant 
Colonel  or  Brigadier  General,  as  has  been  so  often 
asserted  (but  particularly  in  Butler's  Kentucky,  p. 
153)- 


NOTE  CXL. 
VIRGINIA'S  DEED  OF  CESSION  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES  so 

FAR    AS    RELATES    TO    CLARK    AND    HIS    MEN. 

In  the  deed  of  cession  of  March  i,  1784,  made  by 
Virginia  and  accepted  by  the  United  States,  were  these 

*  The  general  but  erroneous  idea  is,  that  Clark  was  arbi 
trarily  and  without  just  cause  turned  out  of  office. 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      79$ 

words :  "That  a  quantity  not  exceeding  one  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  acres  of  land,  promised  by  Vir 
ginia,  shall  be  allowed  and  granted  to  the  then  Colonel, 
now  [late]  General  George  Rogers  Clark,  and  to  the 
officers  and  soldiers  of  his  regiment,  who  marched  with 
him  when  the  posts  of  Kaskaskia  and  Vincennes  were 
reduced,  and  to  the  officers  and  soldiers  that  have  been 
since  incorporated  into  the  said  regiment,  to  be  laid 
off  in  one  tract,  the  length  of  which  is  not  to  exceed 
double  the  breadth,  in  such  place  on  the  northwest  side 
of  the  Ohio  as  a  majority  of  the  officers  shall  choose, 
and  to  be  afterwards  divided  among  the  officers  and 
soldiers  in  due  proportion,  according  to  the  laws  of 
Virginia." 


NOTE  CXLI. 

CONCERNING    CLARK^S    INTEMPERANCE. 

It  is  wholly  unnecessary  in  our  narrative  to  in 
quire  how  early  in  life  Clark  acquired  a  liking  for 
strong  drink.  We  know  that  before  the  ending  of 
the  Illinois  expedition  he  drank  at  least  once  to  excess. 
When  in  October,  1782,  he  asked  to  be  recalled  from 
his  command  in  the  West,  the  habit  had  increased 
upon  him  and  by  reason  of  that  fact  he  had  lost  some 
thing  of  the  confidence  of  the  people  of  Kentucky  al 
though  he  led  a  large  force  from  the  settlements 
against  the  savages,  with  success,  in  November  fol 
lowing. 

"General  Clark  is  in  that  country,"  wrote  a  Vir 
ginian,  on  the  third  of  October,  1782,  in  speaking  of 
Kentucky,  "but  he  has  lost  the  confidence  of  the  peo- 


800       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC. 

pie  and  it  is  said  become  a  sot;  perhaps  something 
worse."  (Arthur  Campbell  to  Wm.  Davies :  Calendar 
of  Virginia  State  Papers,  vol.  Ill,  pp.  337,  338.)  But 
his  having  "become  a  sot,"  it  will  be  noticed  is  only 
hearsay  and  beyond  question  was  not  true;  though  it 
is  evident  that  the  General's  intemperance  brought  on 
many  troubles  (mostly  of  them  imaginary,  however), 
which  increased  his  desire  to  give  up  his  command. 

During  the  next  three  years,  his  habit  made  in 
roads  upon  both  his  body  and  mind.  It  is  painful  to 
read  his  maudlin  talk  about  his  own  adventures,  in 
dulged  in  while  acting  as  one  of  the  United  States 
Commissioners  in  negotiating  the  treaty  of  January 
31,  1786,  with  the  savages  at  Fort  Finney.  (Memoirs 
of  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  vol.  VII, 
pp.  216-218) 

"The  cruel  ingratitude,"  says  a  Western  writer 
who  visited  Clark  when  poverty  and  sickness  had 
claimed  him  as  their  own,  "to  which  this  distinguished 
soldier  was  doomed,  for  which  no  justifiable  cause  can 
be  assigned,  and  the  comparative  poverty  which  made 
him  almost  a  pensioner  on  the  bounty  of  his  relatives, 
was  more  than  he  could  bear.  It  drove  him  to  in 
temperance.  He  sought  the  inebriating  bowl,  as  if  it 
contained  the  water  of  Lethe,  and  could  obliterate  from 
his  memory  the  wrongs  he  had  endured."  But  Clark 
was  not  driven  to  intemperance  by  "cruel  ingratitude" : 
and  "the  wrongs  he  had  endured"  were  mostly  imag 
inary. 

It  may  be  stated  in  connection  with  this  much-to- 
be-deplored  habit  of  Clark,  that  most  of  the  errors  in 
his  Memoir  generally  attributed  (perhaps  charitably) 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      801 

to  his  old  age,  are  directly  traceable  (as  we  have  al 
ready  hinted)  to  his  intemperance. 

This  cloud  which  darkened  more  than  half  of 
Clark's  life,  is  a  sad  subject  to  dwell  upon;  and  it  is 
creditable  to  the  writers  of  Western  history  who  have 
spoken  of  it  that  they  have  done  so  in  a  spirit  of  kind 
ness. 

"Clark's  later  life  is  little  to  his  credit,  but  it 
should  not  be  forgotten  that  he  rendered  the  American 
cause  and  civilization  a  very  great  service."  (Hins- 
dale\  The  Old  Northwest,  pp.  157,158.) 


NOTE  CXLII. 

AN  ERRONEOUS  TRADITION  AS  TO  CLARK' S  ATTACHMENT 
FOR    THE    DAUGHTER    OF    THE    SPANISH    GOVERNOR. 

The  following  tradition  mentioned  by  Draper  in 
his  article  on  Clark  in  Appleton's  Cyclopaedia  of 
American  Biography,  is  wholly  erroneous ;  for  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  Clark  never  visited  St.  Louis  to  aid  in 
its  defense  or  to  relieve  it  from  an  Indian  attack: 
'The  freedom  of  Clark's  early  life  had  unfitted  him 
for  domestic  happiness,  and  he  never  married.  A  tra 
dition  is  preserved  in  the  family  that  he  was  fascin 
ated  with  the  beauty  of  the  daughter  of  the  Spanish 
governor  of  St.  Louis  when  he  relieved  that  post 
from  an  Indian  attack.  Observing  a  want  of  courage 
in  the  governor,  he  broke  off  his  addresses  to  the  girl, 
saying  to  his  friends:  'I  will  not  be  the  father  of  a 
race  of  cowards.' ' 

*51 


802       HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST.  ETC. 

NOTE  CXLIII. 

. 

PORTRAITS  OF  GEORGE  ROGERS  CLARK. 

Concerning  the  so-called  "Jarvis  portrait"  of 
Clark,  the  late  talented  and  much-lamented  librarian 
of  Newberry  library  says : 

"The  only  portrait  [from  life]  of  him  [Clark] 
extant  was  painted  by  John  W.  Jarvis,  an  English 
artist,  who  began  business  in  New  York  in  1801,  and 
painted  the  heads  of  many  distinguished  Americans. 
He  made  a  trip  West  and  South,  during  which  he 
made  many  portraits.  The  picture  of  Clark  represents 
him  about  sixty  years  of  age.  The  best  engraving  of 
it  is  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery,  IV.,  with  a 
biography.  It  is  the  frontispiece  of  Butler's  Kentucky, 
1834,  of  Dillon's  Indiana,  1859,  and  in  the  Cincinnati 
edition  of  Clark's  Campaign;  and  wood-cuts  are  in 
Lossing's  Field-Book,  II,  287;  Magazine  of  Western 
History,  II,  133;  Harper's  Magazine,  XXVIII,  302; 
[Appleton's  Cyclopaedia  of  American  Biography, 
article  "George  Rogers  Clark"]  ;  etc.  It  has  been 
many  times  reproduced  with  a  modification  of  details. 
There  have  been  many  rumors  as  to  the  existence  of 
a  portrait  taken  earlier  in  life.  Every  alleged  portrait 
of  an  earlier  date  which  I  could  hear  of,  I  have  looked 
up,  and  find  they  are  all  copies  or  modifications  of  the 
''Jarvis  picture."  (Dr.  Wm.  Frederick  Poole,  in  "The 
West" — Winsor's  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of 
America,  vol.  VI,  p.  733,  foot-note  4.) 

Under  a  poor  engraving  in  the  Magazine  of 
American  History,  vol.  XXI,  p.  387,  is  the  following; 


HISTORY  OF  CLARK'S  CONQUEST,  ETC.      803 


"  GEORGE  ROGERS  CI,ARK, 
After  the  only  oil  painting  of  Clark  from  life 

in  existence. 

[In  possession  of  the  Vinceunes  University, 
Vincennes,  Indiana]." 


We  have  in  this  the  assertion  not  only  that  the 
portrait  of  Clark  in  the  University  of  Vincennes  is 
from  life,  but  that  it  is  the  only  one  in  existence  thus 
painted.  The  statement  is  made  by  E.  A.  Bryan,  in 
an  article  entitled  "Indiana's  First  Settlement."  Now, 
as  it  is  evident  the  Vincennes  painting  is  not  the  one, 
executed  by  Jarvis,  it  follows  that  (if  what  is  said 
by  that  writer  be  a  certainty),  not  only  another  por 
trait  was  taken  from  life,  but  the  Jarvis  painting  is 
not  in  existence.  But  can  all  this  be  substantiated? 
We  think  not.  It  is  safe  to  conclude  that  the  Vin 
cennes  portrait  is.  not  genuine. 


INDEX. 


Abbott,  David,  Lieutenant  Gov 
ernor  at  Vincennes,  49,  106. 

Battles— Blue  Licks,  492;  Point 
Pleasant,  4. 

Bayley,    711. 

Beaubien,  Charles— Affords  Clark 
an  escape,  297;  Arrives  at  De 
troit,  175;  Army  of,  captures 
Boone,  92;  Hamilton  sends 
message  by,  248;  obtains  in 
formation  from,  663. 

Beaver    Dam,    210. 

Bird,  Captain,  arrives  at  De 
troit,  648. 

Blue  Licks— British  Victory  at, 
492;  Boone  captured  at,  570. 

Boone,  Daniel,  Capture  of,  91, 
93,  570;  Escape  of,  94,  199;  Set 
tles  in  Kentucky,  3;  Letter 
from  brother  of,  757. 

Boonesborough  —  Clark  defends, 
553;  Indians  attack,  63,  199. 

Bowman,  John,  64,  98,  100,  103, 
776;  At  Fort  Gage,  110;  at  Vin 
cennes,  327;  at  Capture  of  Vin 
cennes,  341;  Captures  Illinois 
towns,  123;  Clark  orders  to 
Kaskaskia,  437;  Clark  sends  dis 
patches  to,  131;  Commandant  at 
Harrodstown,  374;  Describes 


Kaskaskia  surrender,  114;  Pro 
vides  supplies  for  Clark,  277; 
Reaches  Kaskaskia,  294;  Re 
turns  from  Cahokia,  137. 

Bowman,  Joseph,  779;  In  Illi 
nois  Campaign,  87,  89,  90;  Let 
ter  to  Henry  concerning  Clark's 
releasing  prisoners,  760;  On 
Rocheblave's  imprisonment,  628; 
Promoted  to  Major,  270. 

"Bowman's  Journal,"  765;  Errors 
in,  706;  Extracts  from,  718. 

British  —  Account  of  Clark's 
treatment  of  Rocheblave,  641;  of 
fate  of  war  party,  722;  Alarm 

(805) 


at  American  success,  649;  Al 
liance  with  Indians,  41;  Ask  for 
re-enforcements,  458;  Clark  pro 
poses  attacking  posts  of,  58,  62; 
Clark  sends  prisoners  of,  to  De 
troit,  758;  ridicules  in  presence 
of  Indians,  142;  threatens  to 
put  into  irons  officers,  739; 
treatment  of,  79;  Disappoint 
ments  of,  480;  Encroachments  of, 
1;  Excitement  over  Clark's  cam 
paign,  460;  Great  Lakes  held  by, 
15;  Imprisoned  at  Williamsburg, 
400;  Indians  incited  by,  10,  14, 
16,  17,  33,  150,  168;  Indian  pol 
icy  of,  51 ;  Interest  of  in  North 
west  Territory,  vi;  March  of 
prisoners  from  Falls  of  Ohio  to 
Chesterfield,  744;  Number  of 
prisoners  taken  by  Clark,  742; 
Prisoners  taken  by,  744;  Protest 
to  Hamilton's  imprisonment, 
387;  Receive  news  of  fall  of 
Vincennes,  374;  Regret  for 
Hamilton's  imprisonment,  457; 
Treatment  of  American  prison 
ers,  408. 

Broadhead,  Daniel,  Succeeds  Mc- 
Intosh,  266. 

Brul6,  Butterfield,  publishes  book 
on,  xvii. 

Butler,  Mann,  On  Clark's  plan  or 
government,  522;  On  Clark's  re 
cruiting  troubles,  564. 

Butterfield,  Consul  Wiltshire,  Be 
queaths  MSS.,  iii;  Character  of, 
ix;  Death  of,  ix;  Domestic  life 
of,  xi-xix;  Early  life  of,  ix; 
Historical  writings  of,  xii; 
Literary  ability  of,  x;  Profes 
sional  life  of,  xii;  Sketch  of, 
ix;  Studies  law,  xii;  Wash 
ington  -  Irvine  correspondence 
published  by,  xiv. 


&06 


INDEX. 


Cahokia— Bowman  captures,  123; 
Bowman  returns  from,  137; 
Clark  holds  Indian  Council  at, 
140,  635;  Clark  marches  to  relief 
of,  490;  Clark's  plan  of  with 
drawing  garrison  from,  284. 

Campbell,  John,   101. 

Carleton,  General— Incites  In 
dians,  11,  19,  39;  Indian  Coun 
cil  held  by,  44;  Rocheblave's 
letter  to,  136. 

Celeron,  De — Clark  attempts  cap 
ture  of,  193;  Hamilton  declares 
unfitness  of,  242;  Hamilton's  ac 
count  of  surrender  of,  195;  In 
cites  Indians,  190;  Indian  em 
bassy  of,  157,  158;  Return  to 
Hamilton,  202;  Suspected  of 
treachry,  206. 

Cerre,  Gabriel,  114,  120,  121,  122; 
British  accou-nt  of  Clark's  treat 
ment  of,  641;  Clark  accuses  of 
inciting  Indians,  132;  Clark's 
treatment  of,  G25. 

Chapoton,  Jean,  Friendship  of, 
for  Americans,  175. 

Chesne,    Capt.,   344. 

Chesterfield,  British  prisoners 
taken  to,  744;  Hamilton  re 
moved  to,  412. 

Chevelier,  Louis,  Aids  Hamilton, 
232,  236;  Indian  influence  of, 
182. 

Chiefs— "Big  Door,"  191;  Black 
bird,  148;  Conrachon,  1*47;  Ki- 
naytounak,  147;  Tobac,  662. 

"Chillicothe"— Boone    at,   92,   94. 

Clark,  George  Rogers — Activity 
of,  in  Illinois,  281;  Appearance 
of,  in  Vincennes,  714;  Apple 
toddy  episode,  714;  Arrives  at 
Vincennes,  472;  As  a  horse- 
trader,  69,  541;  Asks  for  pow 
der,  521;  Asks  for  provisions, 
449;  Asks  for  reinforcements, 
302;  Assigns  commandants  at 
posts,  482;  Attachment  for 
Spanish  woman,  801;  Begins 
movement  in  Illinois  Campaign, 
86,  90;  Builds  Ft.  Jefferson,  490; 
Butterfield  MSS.,  on  conquest 


of,  xviii;  Buys  lottery  ticket, 
545;  Commissioned  Lieutenant- 
Colonel,  74;  Commissioner  to 
Ohio  Indians,  498;  Connection 
with  Genet  affair,  508;  Crosses 
Kaskaskia  River,  598;  Demands 
surrender  of  Vincennes,  346; 
Desertions  from  army  of,  506; 
Diary  of,  his  trip  back  to  Vir 
ginia,  70;  Diary  of,  while  Ma 
jor  of  Kentucky  militia,  56; 
Disappointment  of,  concerning 
reinforcements,  455;  Discretion 
ary  powers  given  to,  560;  Dissi 
pation  of,  506;  Distance  trav 
eled,  expedition  to  Vincennes, 
704;  Dunmore's  War,  In,  3; 
Early  life  of,  3;  Encourages  his 
men,  709;  Erects  no  post  at 
mouth  of  Kentucky,  574;  Eulogy 
on,  555;  Extracts  from  diary  of, 
537,  544;  Families  follow  expe 
dition  of,  567;  Force  of,  ovi 
leaving  Corn  Island,  581;  Ham 
ilton's  presence  ascertained  by, 
286;  Hamilton's  second  meeting 
with,  725;  Henry's  instructions 
to,  274;  Hunters  captured  by, 
589;  Importance  of  expedition 
of,  v;  Indian  attack  on  the 
Licking,  37;  Indian  conspiracy 
to  carry  off,  632;  Intemperance 
of,  799;  Interview  with  Black 
bird,  637;  Journal  of,  on  tak 
ing  Vincennes,  757;  Journey 
of,  from  Kentucky  to  Virginia, 
31;  Kaskaskia,  returns  to,  764; 
Kentuckians  in  campaign  of, 
577;  Kentucky  Indian  invasion, 
on,  499;  Kentucky  troops,  com 
manded  by,  53,  505;  Last  "Gen 
eral  orders"  of,  779;  Leaves 
Kaskaskia  for  Vincennes,  307; 
Leaves  Kentucky,  68;  Letters 
of,  to  Capt.  Lernoult,  760;  Let 
ters  of,  to  Col.  Harrison,  755; 
Letters  of,  to  George  Mason, 
540;  Letters  of,  to  Patrick 
Henry,  754;  MSS.  on,  vi;  Per 
manently  made  a  hero,  537; 
Personal  appearance  and  death 


INDEX. 


807 


of,  508;  Plans  for  government, 
23,  28,  522;  Pledges  given  to, 
561;  Portraits  of,  802;  Principal 
persons  with  Vincennes  expedi 
tion,  306;  Promoted  to  Col 
onelcy,  270;  Proposes  attacking 
British  Posts,  58;  Proposes  cam 
paign  against  Illinois,  74,  70; 
Purpose  in  leaving  Kentucky, 
17,  77,  546;  Reaches  Williams- 
burg,  71;  Receives  present  of 
land  from  Indians,  481,  486;  Re 
cruiting  troubles  of,  564;  Re 
fuses  Hamilton's  articles  of 
capitulation,  359;  Relinquishes 
idea  of  attacking  Detroit,  481; 
Replies  to  Hamilton,  354;  Re 
sults  of  conquest  of,  789;  Resig 
nation  of,  from  army,  493,  496; 
Return  with  powder  to  Ken 
tucky,  37;  Second  visit  of,  to 
Kentucky,  21,  25,  26,  27;  Se 
cures  powder  from  Virginia,  34; 
Sends  spies  into  Illinois  coun 
try,  59,  550;  Settlement  of  ac 
count,  as  Major,  542;  Speech 
of,  to  Kaskaskians,  616;  Super 
intends  survey  of  lands,  495; 
Sword  presented  to,  485,  782; 
Todd  asks,  for  assistance,  501; 
Too  much  credit  given  to,  lor 
Harrodsburg  meeting,  525; 
Treatment  of  prisoners,  368; 
Treaty  of  Ft.  Mclntosh,  497; 
Troubles  with  guide  on  march 
from  Kaskaskia,  595;  Uses  Vigo 
at  Vincennes,  689;  Virginia 
Legislative  Act  for  campaign, 
557;  Virginia's  treatment  of, 
798;  Visits  Kentucky,  4,  511; 
Wheeling  and  Pittsburg,  at, 
568;  Writes  Gov.  Henry  about 
Detroit,  446;  Writes  Gov.  Henry 
about  his  success,  267;  Writes 
Gov.  Henry  about  lands  for  sol 
diers,  428. 

Clark's  Campaign — Cost  of,  485; 
Results  of,  for  government,  48". 

Clark's    Journal,    772. 

Clark's   Memoir,    512. 


"Clarksville"  in  honor  of  Clark, 
497. 

Connolly,  John,  Prepares  to  in 
vade  Northwest,  7. 

Corn  Island — Clark  on,  576; 
Clark's  defensive  works  on,  584; 
Families  of  soldiers  left  on,  583. 

De  Leybe— Clark's  conviviality 
with,  640. 

De  Jean,  Philip,  215,  738;  Pa 
roled  at  Williamsburg,  407; 
Prisoner  in  Virginia,  378;  Vir 
ginia  Council's  accusations 
against,  380. 

De  Peyster,  Captain— Arouses  In 
dians,  14;  Clark's  Campaign,  in, 
462;  Complains  of  non-reinforce 
ment,  477;  Describes  Clark's 
treatment  of  Rocheblave,  643; 
Ignorant  of  Hamilton's  Illinois 
plans,  187;  Indian  negotiations 
of,  231,  233;  Instructs  Langlade 
and  Gautier,  676;  Learns  of 
Clark's  intended  attack,  475; 
Prepares  for  Clark's  attack,  476, 
(See  Detroit) ;  Se-nds  envoys  to 
Indians,  184;  Reports  Clark's 
success  to  Hamilton,  181. 

Detroit — Anticipates  Clark's  at 
tack,  474;  Boone  at,  92;  British 
treat  with  Indians  at,  16  j 
Clark's  anxiety  to  march 
against,  775;  Clark's  plan  for 
capture  of,  83,  430,  445,  470; 
Clark's  second  plan  for  reduc 
tion  of,  491;  Clark  sends  Brit 
ish  prisoners  to,  759;  Clark 
sends  troops  for  reduction  of, 
468;  Date  of  Hamilton's  arrival 
at,  516;  De  Peyster  at,  237;  De 
Peyster  fortifies,  465;  Errors 
concerning  Hamilton's  force  at, 
673;  Hamilton  holds  Indian 
Council  at,  153;  Hamilton's 
force  at,  643;  Henry  advises 
Clark  to  attack,  279;  Indians 
wintered  at,  40;  Reinforcements 
for,  459;  Weakness  of  garrison 
at,  176. 


808 


INDEX. 


Dodge,  John — Hamilton  on,  406; 
Interviews  savages  at  Sandusky, 
517;  Narrative  of,  when  prisoner 
of  British,  744;  Receives  word 
of  imprisonment  of  Hamilton, 
386;  Visits  Williamsburg,  386, 
392,  403. 

Dunmore,  Lord — Incites  Indians, 
168;  Recommends  certain  Tories, 
43. 

Dunmore's    War — Clark    in,    4. 

Embarrass  River — Clark's  march 
along,  314;  Clark's  route  from 
Kaskaskia  to,  708. 

Falls  of  Ohio— Clark's  fort  at, 
491,  781;  Clark's  rendezvous  at, 
565;  Fate  of  war  party  returning 
from,  719;  Fiction  concernrng 
Clark's  military  post  at,  580; 
March  of  British  prisoners 
from,  to  Chesterfield,  744. 

Forbes,    Road  of,    1. 

Forts— Bowman,  138,  188;  Clark 
assigns  commandants  at,  482; 
Clark  erects,  138,  188;  Erected 
at  mouth  of  Ohio,  80,  102;  Falls 
of  Ohio,  at,  781;  Gage,  18,  138; 
Gage,  capture  of,  109,  598; 
Hamilton's  reasons  for  sur 
rendering,  727;  Henry,  Indians 
attack,  48;  Jefferson,  Clark 
erects,  490;  Laurens,  Mclntosh 
builds,  266;  Massac,  589;  Mas- 
sac,  Clark  at,  103,  106;  Miami, 
Hamilton  sends  force  to,  261; 
Michilimackinac,  13;  Nelson, 
Clark  erects,  491;  Patrick  Hen 
ry,  garrison  at,  438;  Pitt,  7; 
Pitt,  Clark  at,  91,  530;  Pitt, 
Virginians  garrison,  48;  Ran 
dolph,  96;  Sackville,  138;  Ac 
cidental  explosion  of  cartridges 
at,  728;  American  rescue,  130; 
Articles  of  surrender  of,  725; 
Attack  and  surrender  of,  729; 
Building  of,  49;  Changed  to 
"Ft.  Patrick  Henry,"  364; 
Clark  hears  news  from,  316; 
Clark's  description  of  surrender 
of,  731;  Clark  takes  possession 
of,  728;  Hamilton's  force  at, 


681;  Hamilton's  plan  for  de 
fense  of,  246;  Hamilton 
strengthens,  252,  262;  Helm 
takes  charge  of,  189;  Surrender 
of,  362,  668;  Williams  escapes 
from  709;  St.  Joseph,  478;  Wea, 
213. 

French  —  Butterfield's  historical 
writings  on,  xiii;  Clark  on  alli 
ance  with,  450;  Clark  receives 
news  of  alliance  with  U.  S., 
579;  Hamilton's  opinions  on. 
160;  Henry's  instructions  con 
cerning,  275;  Henry's  sugges 
tions  concerning,  270;  Number 
of  colonists  of,  213;  Traders, 
complain  to  Helm,  concerning 
goods,  192. 

Frenchman — Clark  orders  death 
of,  353;  Joins  Clark's  forces, 
319. 

Gautier,  Lieut.  —  Commands  In 
dians,  186;  De  Peyster's  in 
structions  to,  676;  Indian  nego 
tiations  of,  234. 

Germain,  Lord  George — Letter  of, 
to  Carleton,  approving  his  In 
dian  plan,  41. 

Gibault,  Father  Pierre,  784;  Ab 
solution  for  Clark's  men,  307; 
Aids  in  winning  Vincennes,  129, 
617;  Consults  with  Clark,  115, 
119;  Diplomacy  of,  at  Vin 
cennes,  657;  Hamilton's  hatred 
for,  288;  Intervenes  for  Vigo, 
691;  Kaskaskia,  at  287.' 

Girtys,  The— Butterfield's  history 
of,  xv ;  Join  British,  467. 

Government — Clark's  plan  of,    522. 

Gunpowder— Clark  and  Jones  ask 
for,  521;  Clark's  supply  at  Vin 
cennes,  716;  Transmission  of  to 
Kentucky  settlement,  528. 

Haldimand,  Frederick — Apprised 
of  Clark's  plans  on  Detroit,  480; 
Commander  of  Quebec,  vi; 
Concern  for  Hamilton  at  Wil 
liamsburg,  408;  Criticises  Ham 
ilton,  at  Vincennes,  678;  Gover 
nor  of  Quebec,  155;  Hamilton 
writes  to,  398;  Hamilton's  pa- 


INDEX. 


809 


role,  on,  424;  Plans  to  retake 
Kaskaskia,  163;  Requests  De 
Peyster  to  get  Indian  aid,  233; 
Retaliates  for  Hamilton's  im 
prisonment,  413. 

Hamilton,  Col.— Accused  of  in 
citing  Indians,  379;  American 
prisoners  taken  by,  216;  Apple 
Toddy  incident,  715;  Army  of, 
180;  Army  of,  Little  River  at, 
207;  Army,  strength  ol ,  207; 
Attacks  Vincennes,  220;  Au 
thorized  to  employ  Indians, 
534;  Begins  march,  181;  Boone 
prisoner  of,  93;  Capitulations 
submitted  to  Clark,  358;  Clark 
paroles,  371;  Clark  suspects  of 
inciting  Indians,  282;  Clark's 
reason  for  capturing,  697; 
Clark's  second  meeting  with, 
725;  Clark's  treatment  of  white 
prisoner,  on,  740;  Commandant 
at  Detroit,  12,  16;  Complains  of 
treatment  at  Williamsburg,  385; 
Date  of  arrival  at  Detroit,  516; 
Death  of,  424;  Describes  impris 
onment,  375,  396,  421;  Describes 
Wabash  Portage,  208;  Effect  of 
capture  of,  461;  Errors  con 
cerning  force  of,  673;  Force  of, 
at  Detroit,  648;  Force  of,  at  Ft. 
Sackville,  681;  Force  of,  at 
Vincennes,  239,  677;  Goes  to 
Montreal,  46;  Haldimand  criti 
cises  at  Vincennes,  678;  Holds 
Indian  Council,  173;  Imprison 
ment,  on,  410;  Incites  Indians, 
39,  150,  153,  647;  Indian  policy 
of,  169;  Indians  aid,  166,  178; 
Indians  sent  into  Kentucky  by, 
65;  Jefferson  accuses  of  -inciting 
Indians,  391 ;  Jefferson  on  im 
prisonment  of,  405;  Jefferson  re 
fuses  exchange  for,  414;  Journey 
of,  from  Williamsburg,  418; 
Learns  of  Clark's  success,  183; 
Lieutenant  Governor  at  Quebec, 
424;  Marches  against  Illinois, 
284;  Marches  to  Kaskaskia,  295; 
Marches  against  Mclntosh,  283; 
March  of,  to  Vincennes,  652; 


Oath  administered  to  citizens  of 
Vincennes  by,  674;  Officers  of, 
650;  Official  report  of,  748; 
Plans  for  campaign,  170;  Plans 
to  aid  Haldimand,  161;  Plans  to 
retake  Kaskaskia,  162;  Prisoner 
at  Falls  of  Ohio,  374;  Prisoner 
in  Virginia,  378;  Proposals  to 
Clark  at  Ft.  Sackville,  718;  Rea 
son  for  fall  of  Vincennes,  by, 
364;  Reinforcements  for,  213; 
Remains  at  Vincennes,  230;  Re 
moved  from  Williamsburg  to 
Chesterfield,  412;  Replies  to 
Clark's  demand  for  surrender, 
348;  Sails  for  England,  423; 
Sends  force  to  Falls  of  Ohio, 
260;  Signs  parole,  415;  South 
ern  Indians  favorable  to,  246; 
Ulterior  designs  of,  in  Illinois 
Campaign,  678;  Urges  Wabash 
Indians  to  assist  British,  158; 
Vigo's  information  concerning, 
696;  Vincennes,  at,  334,  345; 
Winters  at  Vincennes,  239; 
Why  he  wintered  at  Vincennes, 
675;  Writes  to  Haldimand,  con 
cerning  Indian  allies,  159. 

Hand,  General— Commander  of 
Western  Dep't.,  265;  Furnishes 
supplies  in  Illinois  Campaign,  91. 

Harmar,   Josiah,    504. 

Harrison,  Benj. — Clark  relieves 
of  command,  496;  Clark  writes 
to,  429,  755. 

Harrod,    Capt.,    87,    90,    103,   563. 

Harrod,    James,    2. 

Harrodsburg— Attacked  by  In 
dians,  63;  Clark's  meeting  of 
citizens  at,  26;  Meeting  of  June 
6,  1776,  520;  Mythical  account 
of  Indian  sieges  of,  535;  Made 
county  seat,  53. 

Harrodstown — Hamilton  prisoner 
at,  374. 

Hay,  Major  John,  259,  733;  Jef 
ferson  paroles,  416;  Letter  of, 
to  Capt.  Brehm,  644;  Lieutenant 
Governor  of  Detroit,  424;  Taken 
to  Williamsburg,  399;  Vin 
cennes,  sent  to  capture,  218. 


810 


INDEX. 


Helm,  Capt.  Leonard,  103,  732; 
Apple  Toddy  incident,  714;  At 
tachment  of  Tobac's  son,  680; 
Bancroft's  views  concerning 
speech  of,  664;  Captures  St, 
Martin's  Convoy,  736;  Clark's 
conference  with,  355;  Council 
with  Dela  wares,  444;  Council 
with  Piankeshaws,  6o5;  Fiction 
concerning,  667;  Force  of,  sent 
to  Vincennes,  653;  Hamilton 
sends  flag  of  truce  to,  351; 
Holds  council  with  Indians,  191; 
Illinois  campaign,  in,  88,  89,  90; 
Paroled  at  Vincennes,  241;  Re 
turn  of,  to  Vincennes,  367; 
Sent  to  intercept  British  at 
Miami,  366;  Sent  to  Ft.  Sack- 
ville,  188;  Surrenders  at  Vin 
cennes,  223;  Treats  with  Wa- 
bash  Indians,  190, 

Henderson,  Richard  —  Kentucky 
settled  by,  2. 

Henderson's  Land  Company — Ac 
tions  of,  23. 

Henry,  Moses— Clark  receives 
news  by,  332;  Vincennes,  at, 
669. 

Henry,  Patrick — Clark's  campaign, 
on,  451;  Clark's  letter  to,  754; 
Errors  in  private  instructions 
given  to  Clark,  560;  Favors 
Transylvania,  31;  Gives  discre 
tionary  powers  to  Clark,  560; 
Instructions  to  Clark,  81,  274, 
685;  Instructions  to  Todd,  271; 
Orders  Clark  to  secure  Linn  and 
Moore,  559;  Part  of,  in  Illinois 
Campaign,  74,  76;  Sends  militia 
against  Indians,  54;  Suggests 
plan  of  campaign  to  Clark,  280; 
Supports  Clark,  268;  Writes 
Washington  concerning  condi 
tion  in  West,  376. 

Holston    Recruits— Escape    of,    574. 

Horse  Shoe  Plain — Clark  crosses, 
320. 

Hunter,  W.  H.— MSS.  bequeathed 
to,  iii;  Sketch  of  Butterfield  by, 
ix. 


Illinois  Campaign,  74,  76;  Clark's 
aides  in,  87;  Advance  in,  97; 
force  in,  157;  Last  general  or 
ders  in,  779;  Plan  in,  82;  De 
serters  in,  100;  Funds  for,  85; 
Hamilton's  designs  in,  679;  In 
dians,  absence  of  in,  126;  Op 
position  to,  97,  89;  Supplies  for, 
80;  Virginia  profits  by,  785. 

Illinois— Clark  captures  with  ease, 
125;  Hamilton's  campaign  in, 
226. 

Illinois  County,  469;  Extent  of, 
686;  Virginia  establishes,  269, 
681. 

Indians,  720,  787;  Barbarity  of, 
168;  British  aided  by,  463,  168, 
162;  Alliance  with,  41,  462;  In 
cite,  10,  14,  16,  17,  33,  39,  150, 
502,  546;  Offer  rewards  for 
American  scalps,  113;  Supply 
provisions  for,  464;  Cerr6  in 
cites,  132;  Conspiracy  to  cap 
ture  Clark,  632;  Clark  attacks, 
353;  Ambush  near,  296;  Ab 
sence  of,  in  campaign  of,  126; 
Commissioner  to  the  Ohio,  498; 
Council  with,  at  Cahokia,  140; 
145,  635;  at  Vincennes,  761; 
Gives  treaty  letters  to,  147;  In 
terview  with  Blackbird,  637; 
Makes  peace  with,  138;  Party 
of,  attacked  by,  37;  Present 
land  to,  481,  486;  Proclamation 
of,  to,  436;  Punishment  by,  to, 
633;  Success  with,  436,  447; 
Treaties  with,  139,  147,  434; 
Delaware,  Clark  subdues,  442; 
De  Peyster's  negotiations  with, 
231,  233,  476;  Dodge's  interview 
with  .at  Sandusky,  517;  Fort 
Henry  attacked  by,  48;  Frontier 
warfare  of,  36;  Depredation  of, 
on,  48;  Number  sent  from  De 
troit,  45,  46;  Hamilton,  at 
tempts  confederation  of,  242; 
Authorized  to  employ,  534; 
Council  with,  173;  at  Detroit, 
154;  at  Vincennes,  253;  Forces 
joined  by,  212;  Hopes  for  as- 


INDEX. 


811 


sistance  from,  258;  Incites,  154, 
379,  411,  647;  Partizanship  with, 
741;  Sends  agents  to,  in  south, 
240,  246;  Secures  aid  from,  160, 
171,  178;  Use  of,  679;  Helm, 
Council  with,  188;  sent  as  agent 
to,  188;  Henry,  instructions 
concerning,  83,  271,  274,  279; 
Illinois  Campaign,  position  of, 
in,  663;  Illinois,  The,  20; 
Moore  and  Linn  go  to,  535; 
Morgan  designs  against,  518; 
Jefferson,  accuses  Hamilton  ot 
inciting,  391;  Kentucky,  Cam 
paign  of,  against,  503;  Forts  of, 
attacked  by,  63,  65,  66;  Invaded 
by,  35,  54,  65,  66;  Threatened 
by,  498;  Miami,  The,  Clark, 
marches  agamst,  492;  Pennsyl 
vania,  depredations  of,  in,  95; 
Potto  wattamies,  The,  enlist 
with  British,  477;  Northwest, 
The,  2;  Shawnee,  The,  Clark 
punishes,  482,  490;  Spanish  in 
fluence  on,  155;  Sieges  of  Har- 
risburg  and  Logan  Forts  by, 
535;  Traders  killed  by,  442;  Vin- 
cennes,  at,  130,  222,  334,  225; 
Wabash,  The,  Clark's  failure 
against,  507;  Asked  to  help 
British,  158;  Wabash  Land 
Company  purchase  land  from, 
665. 

Jefferson,  Thomas— Hamilton  pa 
roled  by,  416;  Hamilton's  im 
prisonment,  on,  388,  405;  Ham 
ilton's  refusal  of  parole,  on,  409; 
Illinois  Campaign,  on,  85;  Let 
ter  of,  to  Clark,  772;  Opinion 
of  Clark,  507;  Pledge  of,  to 
Clark,  561;  Replies  to  Washing 
ton,  concerning  exchange  of 
Hamilton,  414;  Sends  Hamilton 
to  Williamsburg,  383;  Suggests 
Clark's  Memoir,  512;  Wash 
ington's  letter  to,  concerning 
Hamilton's  imprisonment,  402; 
Writes  to  Lernoult  concerning 
Hamilton's  imprisonment,  389; 
Writes  to  Washington  concern 
ing  Clark's  campaign,  455; 


Writes  to  Washington  concern 
ing  Clark's  attack  on  Detroit, 
777. 

Jesuits,   at   Kaskaskia,    604. 

Jones,  John  Gabriel — Asks  for 
powder,  521 ;  Suppression  of 
name  in  Kentucky  history ^  524; 
Illinois  Campaign,  in,  101;  Kas 
kaskia  Campaign,  in,  607,  609; 
Military  record  of,  621;  Return 
of,  from  Kaskaskia,  620. 

Kentuckians  in  Clark's  army,  101, 
577,  786. 

Kentucky,  (See  Transylvania), 
29;  Approbation  of  Clark's 
Campaign  in,  455;  Asks  protec 
tion  from  Virginia,  22;  British 
invade,  490;  Clark  and  Jones 
carry  gunpowder  to,  531;  Clark's 
idea  of  political  situation  in, 
797;  Clark's  second  visit  to,  21, 
25,  26,  27;  County  of,  organized, 
35,  53,  523;  County  seat  of,  53; 
Delegates  from  to  Virginia  Con 
vention,  29;  During  Illinois 
Campaign,  91,  199;  Growth  of, 
94;  Gunpowder  voted  for,  528; 
Indian  invasion  of,  threatened, 
498;  Indian  roads  in,  35;  Result 
of  petition  to  Virginia,  33,  35; 
Settlement  of,  2. 

Kaskaskia,  8,  445;  British  account 
of  capture  of,  157;  Capture  of, 
599,  612;  Clark's  council  with 
inhabitants  of,  615;  Clark's  de 
parture  for  Vincennes,  307; 
Clark's  government  at,  134,  149, 
151;  Clark's  march  to,  108,  585; 
Clark's  orders  to  burn,  292; 
Clark's  prisoners  at,  120;  Clark's 
proposition  to  attack,  78,  81; 
Clark  reaches,  109;  Clark's  re 
turn  to,  764;  Clark's  return  to, 
from  Vincennes,  769;  Clark's  re 
turn  to,  from  Indian  Council, 
148;  Clark's  route  from  the  Ohio 
to,  591;  Clark's  start  for,  from 
Vincennes,  438;  De  Peyster's 
account  of  capture  of,  160;  De 
sertions  at,  407;  Fortifications 
at,  465;  Hamilton  plans  to  re- 


812 


INDEX. 


take,  162;  Hamilton  sends  In 
dians  toward,  243;  Hamilton 
sends  scouts  to,  241;  Hamilton's 
march  to,  295;  History  of,  602; 
Military  road  to,  592;  Montgom 
ery  arrives  at,  454;  Reinforce 
ments  for,  432;  Spies  report  to 
Clark  concerning  strength  of, 
60;  Suffering  of  Clark's  soldiers 
on  march  to,  597;  Surrender  to 
Clark,  113,  124;  Terms  of  sur 
render,  118;  Wabash  Indians 
unsuccessful  in  march  to,  249. 

Kaskaskia  River— Clark  crosses, 
308. 

Kennedy,  Patrick— Clark's  Com 
missary,  313. 

Kenton,  Simon— Capture  of  Vin- 
cennes,  at,  131. 

Lamothe,  Capt.— Capture  of  Vin- 
cennes,  at,  342;  Hamilton  sends 
out,  336;  Imprisonment  of,  378, 
422;  Jefferson's  accusations 
against,  393;  Paroled  at  Wil- 
liamsburg,  407;  Virginia  Coun 
cil's  accusation  against,  381; 
Volunteers  of,  complain,  349. 

Lands— Bounty,  to  Tories,  42,  44; 
Clark's  soldiers,  for,  486,  487; 
Clark  writes  Henry,  concerning, 
428;  Distribution  of,  for  Clark's 
soldiers,  494;  Indians  deed  to 
Clark,  777;  Indians  present  to 
Clark,  481;  Provided  for  Clark's 
soldiers,  451. 

Langlade,  Capt.  Chas.— De  Peys- 
ter's  instructions  to,  670;  Indian 
negotiations  of,  234;  Recruits 
force  of  Indians,  700;  Services 
of,  to  British,  187. 

Lebyba,  Don— Friendship  of,  for 
Clark,  151. 

Le  Font,  Dr.— Assists  Clark  in 
securing  Vincennes,  129. 

Lernoult,  Capt. — Aids  Hamilton, 
648;  Clark's  letter  to,  760;  Ham 
ilton  sends  to  Ft.  Miami,  176; 
Sent  to  Western  Posts,  47; 
Writes  Jefferson  concerning 
Hamilton's  imprisonment,  389. 


Linn,  Capt.  William,  101;  Carries 
letter  to  Clark,  519;  Governor 
orders  Clark  to  arrest,  559. 

Liquors— Hamilton  takes  up  at 
Vincennes,  245. 

Logan,  Benj.— Asks  for  Clark's 
assistance,  499. 

Logan's  Fort— Mythical  account  of 
Indian  sieges  of,  535. 

Lord,  Captain — Indian  policy  of, 
51. 

Louisville— Clark  at,  98;  Clark 
leaves,  103;  Founding  of,  135. 

Maisonville,  Francis— Capture  of, 
337;  Suicide  of,  412,  422;  Re 
turns  to  Ft.  Sackville,  263; 
Treatment  accorded  to,  717. 

Mason,  George— Clark's  letter  to, 
540;  Pledge  to  Clark,  561,  785. 

Maumee — Hamilton  on,   172,   203. 

McBeath — Hamilton  compliments, 
422. 

McCarty,  Capt.— Makes  canoe  for 
Clark,  314;  Re-inforces  Clark, 
305. 

Mclntosh,  Lachlan— Commander 
at  Pittsburg,  265. 

McKee,  Capt.  Alexander — Indian 
interpreter,  649;  Joins  Hamil 
ton's  army,  209;  Scout  of  Ham 
ilton,  174;  Sent  to  Shawnee  In 
dians,  262. 

Miamis  The— Importance  of  to 
British,  176. 

Miamitown— Hamilton  arrives  at, 
205. 

Militia — Clark  raises  for  Illinois 
Campaign,  77;  Illinois  Cam 
paign,  in,  99;  Increase  of,  in 
Kentucky,  67;  Montgomery  in 
trusted  to  raise,  272;  Organiza 
tion  of,  in  Kentucky,  53;  Pay 
of,  in  Illinois  Campaign,  7b; 
Provisions  for,  55;  Transporta 
tion  of,  in  Illinois  Campaign, 
78. 

Moore  and  Linn — Go  as  militia  to 
the  Illinois,  435. 

Moore,  Henry — Orders  Clark  to 
arrest,  559. 


INDEX. 


813 


Money— Depreciation  of,   448. 

Montgomery,  Col.  John,  101,  103; 
Carries  provisions  to  Vincennes, 
470;  Clark  sends  to  Virginia, 
135;  Henry's  instructions  to, 
272;  Joins  Clark,  578;  Military 
commander  of  Illinois,  484; 
Provides  supplies  for  Clark, 
278;  Recruits  reinforcements 
for  Clark,  453. 

Morgan,  George — Appointed  In 
dian  agent,  16,  18;  Early  de 
signs  against  the  Illinois,  518. 

Myers,  William,  752,  754;  Ar 
rives  at  Vincennes  with  message, 
427;  Carries  message  for  Clark, 
431;  Clark's  warrant  to,  756; 
Death  of,  771;  Trip  to  Williams- 
burg,  756. 

Northwest  Territory—Extent  of, 
vi. 

O'Hara,  Capt. — Virginia  Com 
pany,  of,  572. 

Ohio  River — Clark's  prisoners 
convoyed  down,  373. 

Pelham— Hamilton  writes  to,  con 
cerning  imprisonment,  395. 

Phillips,  Gen.— Protests  against 
Hamilton's  imprisonment,  387. 

Piankeshaws  deed  land  to  Clark, 
777. 

Pioneers — Discouragement  of  Ken 
tucky,  69. 

Pittsburg— Clark    at,    568. 

Point    Pleasant— Clark    at,    97. 

Pollock,    Oliver,    782. 

Potier,  Pierre — British  oajh  of  al 
legiance  by,  180. 

Prairie   De    Roches— Clark  at,    285. 

Prisoners — British,  jailed  in  Vir 
ginia,  378;  Clark  sends  to  Falls 
of  Ohio,  372;  Clark's  disposition 
of,  433;  Virginia  Council  passes 
on,  383. 

Quebec  Act— Passage  of,   13. 

Quebec  (Province) — Colonists  in 
vade,  19. 

Redstone  —  Clark's  embarkation 
from,  565. 


Robinson,  Andrew — Carries  news 
of  Hamilton's  imprisonment  to 
Dodge,  386. 

Rocheblave,  M.,  61,  106;  Arrives 
at  Williamsburg,  267;  Bowman 
on  arrest  of,  628;  British  ac 
count  of  Clark's  treatment  of, 
641;  Breaks  parole,  411;  Capture 
of,  611;  Clark  places  in  irons, 
120,  121;  Commandant  at  Fort 
Gage,  19;  Helm  to  be  exchanged 
for,  241;  Henry  instructs  con 
cerning  family  of,  272,  277;  Im 
peachment  of,  156,  157;  Indian 
policy  of,  51 ;  Surrenders  to 
Clarkj  111;  Taken  prisoner  to 
Virginia,  135;  Writes  Carleton  a 
letter,  136. 

Rogers  Lieut.— Part  taken  in  cap 
ture  of  Vincennes,  304. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore— Butterfield 
criticises,  xvi;  Erroneous  state 
ment  of,  in  "Winning  of  the 
West,"  568;  Failure  of,  to  men 
tion  Jones,  524;  Feasts  enjoyed 
by  Clark's  men,  707;  Pledges 
to  Clark,  562. 

Sackville  Fort— (See  Forts  and 
Vincennes.) 

Saline  River — Clark  crosses,  309. 

Sandusky — Dodge's  interview  with 
Indians  at,  577. 

Saunder,   John,   Losing  of,   108. 

Schieffelin,  Jacob,  572;  Asks  for 
parole,  407;  Describes  Hamil 
ton's  imprisonment,  384;  Escape 
of,  411,  422. 

Shelby,  Col.  Isaac,  56;  Prepares 
boats  for  expedition,  273. 

Sinclair,  Patrick,  British  Com 
missioner  to  incite  Indians,  14. 

Slaughter,  Major,  Raises  force 
for  Clark,  279. 

Smith,  Wm.  B.,  563;  Illinois 
Campaign,  in,  87,  90. 

Smyth,  John,  British  messenger, 
9. 

Spanish — Aid  Americans,  249; 
Clark  advised  to  get  aid  from, 


814 


INDEX. 


291;  Clark's  attachment  to 
daughter  of  governor,  801;  Clark's 
relations  with,  151;  Clark  seizes 
property  of,  506;  Friendship  of, 
for  Clark,  128;  Kaskaskia  Cam 
paign,  160;  Neutral  position  of, 
57;  Vigo,  merchant,  688. 

"Spoils"  of  Vincennes,    370. 

St.  Clair,  William — Imprisoned  at 
Williamsburg,  410. 

St.    Croix,    721;    Killing   of,    353. 

St.  Joseph— British  erect  fort  at, 
478. 

St.  Martin,  Adhemar,  651;  Clark 
intercepts,  366;  Helm  captures 
convoy  of,  736. 

St.  Philips— Bowman  captures, 
123. 

Stuart,  John,  Indian  agent  for 
Hamilton,  240. 

Todd,  Col.  John,  449,  775;  Ac 
companies  Clark,  606;  Arrives 
at  Kaskaskia,  453;  Henry's  in 
structions  to,  270;  Indians  de 
feat  at  Blue  Licks,  532;  Lieu 
tenant  of  Illinois  County,  269; 
Organizes  Civil  government  for 
Kaskaskia,  469. 

Todd,  Levi,  writes  Governor 
Henry  concerning  Indian  at 
tacks,  501. 

Towles,  Col.,  offered  in  exchange 
for  Hamilton,  415. 

Treaty   of   Ft.    Mclntosh,    497. 

Transylvania  —  (See         Kentucky) 

.  Asks  protection  from  Virginia, 
22;  Clark  opposes,  6. 

Transylvania   Company,   1,    527. 

Vigo,  Col.  Francis,  784;  Arrives 
at  Kaskaskia,  298;  Clark's  er 
rors  as  to  information  from, 
694;  Visits  Vincennes,  586. 

Vincennes  —  Abbott,  Lieutenant- 
Governor  at,  49;  Accepts  Vir 
ginia's  protection,  624;  Ameri 
cans  attack,  265;  British  force 
at,  198,  299;  Capture  of,  130; 
Campaign  against,  440;  Citizens 
take  British  oath,  674,  228;  Con 
dition,  after  Clark's  capture, 


665;  Clark's  account  of  capture 
of,  338;  Appoints  officers  for, 
438;  Army  at,  326;  Arrangement 
before  leaving,  780;  Conceives 
attack  on,  128,  301;  Entry  into, 
712,  330;  Establishes  garrison  at, 
506;  Gets  news  from,  106;  Force 
against,  702;  Journal  of  taking 
of,  757;  Leads  Kentucky  troops 
to,  505;  Leaves  Kaskaskia  for, 
307;  Leaves  for  Falls  of  Ohio, 
484;  March  from  Kaskaskia  to, 
703,  322;  Plan  for  attacking,  586; 
Prepares  to  attack,  303,  59; 
Proclamation  to  inhabitants  of, 
325,  328;  Returns  to  Kaskaskia, 
769;  Second  march  to,  775; 
Sends  spies  to,  551;  Father  Gi- 
bault  aids  Clark  at,  617;  Feasts 
of  Clark's  men  on  expedition  to, 
707;  Fiction  concerning  Clark's 
appearance  at,  714;  Fort  at,  138; 
Garrison  at,  472;  Hamilton 
agrees  to  surrender  to  Clark, 
361;  Captures,  221,  670,  224;  De 
termines  to  recapture  force  of, 
at,  677;  Holds  Indian  Council 
at,  253;  March  of,  to,  652;  Sub 
mits  articles  of  capitulation  for, 
358;  Winters  at,  239,  675;  Helm 
at,  653,  672;  Henry  announces 
capture  of,  to  Virginia  Legisla 
ture,  377;  Importance  of  surren 
der  of,  735;  Militia  of,  take 
British  oath,  244;  Population  of, 
229;  Provision's  for  Clark's  cam 
paign  against,  702;  Scene  in,  at 
Clark's  attack,  332;  Willing  ar 
rives  at,  752. 

"Vincennes   Trace,"  308, 

Virginia — Cedes  Northwest  to 
general  government,  487,  798; 
Motives  in  sending  Clark 
on  campaign,  554;  Profited  by 
Clark's  campaign,  785;  Treat 
ment  of  Clark  by,  798;  Sup 
ports  Clark,  268. 

Virginia  Legislature — Action  taken 
on  Clark's  campaign,  269;  Act 
authorizing  campaign,  557;  Clark 


INDEX. 


815 


voted  sword  by,  485,  782;  Ham 
ilton's  part  in  war  received  by, 
379. 

Virginia  Company,    O'Hara's,   572. 

Volunteers— Clark's  discharge  of, 
368. 

Wabash,  Little— Americans  recon 
noitre  upon,  197;  Clark  crosses, 
310,  707;  Hamilton's  journey 
adown,  211. 

Wabash  Land   Company,   665. 

Warrior    Island,    711. 

Washington,  George  —  Hamilton 
discussed  by,  401,  408,  413,  4i7; 
Jefferson  writes  concerning 
Clark,  777;  Jefferson  writes  con 
cerning  Hamilton,  388. 

Washington  -  Irvine  Correspond 
ence,  xiv. 

Wea— Description  of,  644;  Helm 
captures,  194;  Indian  council  at, 


214;     St.     Martin's    convoy    cay- 
tured   at,    736. 

Wheeling— Clark  at,    561. 

Wilderness    Road,    69. 

Williams,  Captain— At  Vincennes, 
327;  Clark  sends  to  reconnoitre, 
317. 

Williamsburg  —  British     prisoners 
taken    to,     383;     Hamilton's     de 
scription   of   jail    at,    395;    News 
of  Clark's  campaign  received  at, 
456. 

Williamson,    Colonel  David,   xviii. 

Worthington,  Captain,  101;  At 
Vincennes,  327. 

Willing,  The,  815;  Arrives  at  Vin 
cennes,  426,  752;  Carries  pro 
visions  for  Clark,  304;  Factg 
concerning,  700;  Sent  to  Kas- 
kaskia,  438. 

Wythe,    George,    561. 


1C  50391 


678G22 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


